by Will Brinson
It is implicitly understood that professional athletes are not to have any sort of violent interaction with fans during games. Shaun Ellis clearly violated that rule -- I'm pretty sure it's an official one -- when he launched a monster chunk of snow into a group of Seahawks fans (VIDEO) after they pelted him with snowballs on Sunday.
And now Ellis, predictably, is paying the price, according to Adam Schefter on the NFL Network (via PFT).
The decision of Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis to hoist a large snowball/snow clump into the stands at Qwest Field on Sunday has resulted in the NFL throwing right back at him a $10,000 fine.
[...]Schefter reports that players are told before the start of each season that any contact with fans is prohibited, where such contact presents crowd-control issues and/or the risk of injury.
It's not surprising at all -- you just can't attack fans and expect not to a) get caught on camera and b) get fined. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that it's "only" 10 grand, considering the way that Roger Goodell likes to lay down the law against violators of his policies.
Laugh if you want, but seriously, what Ellis did was potentially damaging to a fan's health, and you better believe that if someone had gotten hurt and the league got sued, $10,000 would be considered "getting off light."
Shaun Ellis Fined $10k for Launching a Huge 'Snowball' at Fans in Seattle originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
