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In a Friday news dump that was so quiet that it slipped past us, there was a fine handed down by the NFL for San Francisco 49ers CB Richard Sherman for last week’s hit on his former Seattle Seahawks teammate, Tyler Lockett.
Upon league review, Sherman lowered his helmet to initiate contact, which should’ve been a flag, but it went uncalled.
#49ers CB Richard Sherman was fined $28,075 for unnecessary roughness for lowering his head to initiate contact on his big hit of #Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett in the second quarter. No flag was thrown.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 16, 2019
Here’s the play in question.
The commentary on this play was bizarre. Sherman got mauled by DK and then trucked by Lockett. It was an amazing effort play by Sherman. But he was not the one delivering the punishment pic.twitter.com/3PUZjAxfgR
— Parker Lewis (@ParkerLewisJR) November 14, 2019
The NFL has made it a point of emphasis to penalize offensive and defensive players for initiating contact with their helmets, although I’d say the application of the rule has been inconsistent at best. In this instance, this was the retroactive right call.
Sherman is coming off an eventful day against the Arizona Cardinals. In San Francisco’s 36-26 win over the Cards, Sherman was flagged for defensive pass interference three times, including one that was a successful (!) challenge by Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury. This is humorous if only because of how 49ers fans must feel about Sherman getting the flags they felt he should’ve regularly been getting when he was with the Seahawks.