NFL Star Punished After Telling Refs To 'Stay Off the Bottle'
If Malcolm Jenkins ever tries to say that this wasn’t the best $12,500 he ever spent, don’t you believe it.
As The Wildcard reported last week, after his Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Cowboys in Week 14, Jenkins accused the referees of professional incompetence in hilarious fashion.
Specifically, he told them to “stay off the bottle.”
The NFL has now handed down punishment for Jenkins’ remarks. But considering how former NBA commissioner David Stern used to fine coaches, players and even owners $25,000 for so much as looking at a referee with a frown on their face, the $12,500 Jenkins was fined is a Black Friday doorbuster by comparison.
For those with short memories, let’s all remind ourselves why Jenkins had a completely legitimate beef:
And, of course, there was … let’s just call it a “creative interpretation” of the rules regarding someone emerging from the bottom of a pile of his own teammates with a fumbled football and this somehow being “inconclusive” evidence to prove possession.
Jenkins will make a total of $8.6 million this year, so $12,500 surely won’t break him.
Indeed, it’s just 1/688th of his income this year, the equivalent of someone making $50,000 getting fined $72.67. That’s cheaper than buying a ticket to see Jenkins play.
And of course, the league office had to do something. You can’t have players popping off at the officiating with impunity or you risk fans picking up on that vibe and thinking that their chosen sport has all the legitimacy of the WWE.
All the same, Jenkins can say that football is what the wrestling folks call a work, but if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it costs $12,500 to call it a duck.
And it’s not like the referees awarded Dallas all 29 of the points they scored in the 29-23 win. If the Eagles’ defense had been better, they wouldn’t have lost the game, and Jenkins, a safety, is part of that defense.
Going into play Sunday, the Eagles were 6-7, bizarrely stuck in a three-way tie for seventh place in the execrable NFC playoff race They were just half a game behind the 6-6-1 Vikings after Minnesota’s loss to Seattle (which all but locked up the No. 5 seed for the 8-5 Seahawks) last week.
Jenkins is going to have to pay his money, get back on the horse and not let the refs get in the way of his contributions to help prevent the defending Super Bowl champions from missing the playoffs entirely.
Philadelphia travels to Los Angeles to face the Rams on Sunday Night Football before hosting Houston in Week 16 and traveling to Washington in Week 17.
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