The Seattle Seahawks are coming off another tough loss, and to make matters worse, two players were fined for unintentional fouls against the Denver Broncos. In Ty Okada’s case, he got an unwanted daily double.
The starting safety received not one, but two penalties for plays that occurred within a minute of game time in the opening quarter. He was docked $6,361 for an illegal use of a helmet while hitting Broncos wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. It certainly wasn’t very obvious watching it in real time or even on replay. His second $6,361 fine was for what the league deemed a tripping attempt on Broncos running back RJ Harvey. Perhaps if Harvey had gone down immediately there would have been a penalty called live, but there wasn’t.
Meanwhile, defensive end Mike Morris earned his own fine ($6,808) for illegally lowering his helmet while making a clean-up tackle on Troy Franklin.
Finally, there was a Broncos player fined for a hit that came at a critical point in the contest. With under a minute left in regulation, Sam Darnold was drilled by Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton on a late rush. Darnold was remarkably slow to get up after his violent hit, which did not result in a roughing the passer penalty. However, it prompted a $23,882 fine from the league for illegal helmet use. They almost never call these helmet penalties in the game, but I think it might be called roughing the passer at this point.
These fines can be appealed. If any of these fines are upheld, players will forfeit money from their next game check, otherwise they will be notified of a revocation in the case of a successful appeal.