Five NFL players – including Stefon Diggs and Ja’Marr Chase – are fined more than $54,000 combined for unsportsmanlike conduct in Week 1, as league continues to crack down on taunting
- Stefon Diggs and Ja’Marr Chase were among the players fined after Week 1
- Chase was fined twice to the tune of $23,870, the most of the five players
- The league made a concerted effort to enforce the taunting rule last season
Five NFL players were fined for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first week of the season, including star wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Ja’Marr Chase.
Diggs was fined $10,609 for taunting Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey in the season opener, per NFL Network, following his reaction to a fourth-quarter touchdown catch.
The Bills receiver beat Ramsey to score on a 53-yard reception to make the score 31-10, and could be seen talking to his opponent afterwards.
Stefon Diggs (No. 14) was fined $10,609 after Week 1 for taunting Rams’ Jalen Ramsey (No. 5)
The league determined that Diggs did something that fit within the definition of their taunting rule – ‘the use of baiting or taunting acts or words that engender ill will between teams’ – though no flag was thrown after his touchdown grab.
Elsewhere, another top receiver, Ja’Marr Chase, was fined twice for unsportsmanlike conduct in his team’s loss to the Steelers for a total of $23,870.
Seahawks safety Jamal Adams, who suffered a season-ending quad injury in Week 1, was also fined $10,609 after his team’s win over the Broncos.
Bills cornerback Dane Jackson and Broncos linebacker Jonathon Cooper were both fined lesser amounts, getting docked $4,972 and $4,723 respectively.
The league made a concerted effort to crack down more on unsportsmanlike conduct last season, a decision that came directly from the NFL Competition Committee and the Coaches’ Subcommittee.
Ja’Marr Chase was fined for two separate instances for a total of $23,870 following Week 1
‘The coaches felt over the last few years it had gotten out of control. We cannot move away from sportsmanship being the core of our game,’ Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, told the Associated Press last year.
‘Sportsmanship has always been the core. The rules are very clear. Don’t do it toward the opponent’s sideline or at the opponent.
‘That doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate, you can’t have fun, you can’t have spontaneous actions. You can jump, flip, celebrate. You just can’t do it at an opponent.’
Sixty one taunting penalties were called last season, the most in at least two decades, ESPN reported.