Latest fine angers Steelers' Clark
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Ryan Clark - Has been fined two weeks in a row
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Steelers safety Ryan Clark will appeal the $40,000 fine the NFL issued to him this week that even his coach called "excessive," but he knows how those appeals go.
It usually has been a one-way street in the Steelers experience, and Clark said if he has to speak to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about it they will have to bring him to New York in handcuffs.
"I mean you can appeal, but I'm appealing to the same person," Clark said, alluding to Goodell. "The same man. I know, he's not going to sit across from me because I'm not going to sit across from him unless they handcuff me, which is probably the next step anyway."
The NFL fined Clark $40,000 for a hit from the game Sunday night at Heinz Field, and the Steelers safety is angry about it. So, too, is his head coach and his quarterback, and the union's executive director said he will review the video of the play and talk to the Steelers coaching staff about it.
- Game: Steelers (6-3) at Cincinnati Bengals (6-2), Paul Brown Stadium.
- When: 1 p.m. Sunday.
- TV: KDKA.
- Line: Steelers by 3.
Clark said Mike Tomlin informed him of the fine and said the hit, on Baltimore tight end Ed Dickson, was used by the Steelers coach to demonstrate a good, clean hit in the team's video review of the game on Monday. Officials called a penalty for unnecessary roughness on that hit.
Tomlin was said to be furious when he learned about the fine from the league office Wednesday.
"I think the fine that Ryan Clark received was excessive," Tomlin said in a statement issued through the team's public relations department. "I am a proponent of player safety and the league's pursuit of improvement in this area. I, like the vast majority of people in this industry, witness daily the steep price that these young men pay to play this game on so many levels.
"Ryan has my full support if he chooses to appeal this in any way."
Clark also was fined $15,000 last week for a hit out of bounds, one he said he accepted because it was wrong. He did not accept this one.
"This time it's wrong," Clark said, "not that I respected Roger before this."
Clark said if he is going to get hit with such a big fine on what he and Tomlin and teammates believe was a clean hit, "I might as well put him to sleep for real" or take out the receiver's knee.
First Published November 10, 2011 12:00 am
