NFL: Yelling At Officials > Hitting A Guy

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 13, 2009 10:01PM

Some wackness coming out of the NFL offices today as a pair of Bears were fined for stuff that went down in their Week 9 debacle against the Arizona Cardinals and it's left us scratching our heads. Cutler was fined $20,000 for jawing at an official during the game. According to ESPN, "Cutler was fined as a result of verbal abuse toward the back judge, which drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the Bears' 41-21 loss to the Cardinals." The NFL was a bit more specific: "Cutler was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct during the third quarter, when he believed TE Greg Olsen was held on a fourth-and-4 play. Cutler had words with referee Ed Hochuli to draw the 15-yard penalty."

Well, what the hell did he say? We'd be pissy, too, if we were paid so much money and such lofty expectations only find ourselves leading the league in interceptions (17) halfway through the season but seriously? $20,000 for mouthing off? See, it's not that we necessarily agree or disagree with how much a player should be fined for such an offense, it's more about this next piece of information. Tommie Harris, who was ejected from the same game for punching the Cardinals' Deuce Lutui, was fined as well. Except his was only a third of Cutler's fine. That's right, the below hit got Harris a $7,500 fine.

So the fine for the play that gets a player ejected is less than the play that gets you a 15-yard penalty for not shutting up? Makes perfect sense to us! Harris isn't planning on appealing the fine and why would he? With no suspension coming, he's making out like Fast Eddie compared to Cutler.