Roger Goodell has focused his attention on Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather again, suspending the eight-year veteran without pay for the first two games of this season. The NFL commissioner has taken this action because of a perceived helmet-to-helmet hit on Baltimore Ravens’ wide out Torrey Smith in the second quarter of a 23-17 preseason loss to the Ravens this past Saturday night. Meriweather has three days to appeal the decision according to the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and he is not allowed out at Redskin Park nor to have contact with anyone from the team from September 1 through September 15.
This is not Meriweather’s first bit of attention from the Commish. The defensive back was suspended last October for two games because of a hit on Chicago Bears wide out Brandon Marshall but it was reduced to one game after he won an appeal.
The statement from the NFL reads that:
Safety Brandon Meriweather of the Washington Redskins has been suspended without pay for the first two games of the regular season for his sixth violation of unnecessary roughness rules relating to hits to defenseless players and impermissible use of the helmet. In the second quarter of the Redskins’ August 23 game against the Baltimore Ravens, Meriweather made forcible contact to the head and neck area of a defenseless player (Torrey Smith) on a pass play.
A former safety made a statement as well.
“On the play in question, Meriweather delivered a forceful blow to the head and neck area of a defenseless receiver with no attempt to wrap up or make a conventional tackle of this player,” the NFL’s current Executive Vice president of Football Operations, Troy Vincent, said in a statement today.
Redskins head coach Jay Gruden did not think that his safety made the hit on purpose as it was described by the NFL. After the game Saturday night, he defended Meriweather saying he thought he had tried to lower his target area. He reiterated it again today saying, “I thought he did as good of a job as he could to lower his target.”
Saturday after the game, Meriweather spoke to reporters about the penalty he’d received.
“I’m not the one who wrote the book on penalties,” he said. “I tried to aim at his numbers. I had kind of seen the pass go and I went in and aimed low. I hit him with my shoulder. I did everything my coaches taught me to do and I got the flag.”
Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall expressed his support of his teammate on Twitter today, writing:
Fair is Fair. I can’t speak on @BMeriweather31 past hits but from what I saw that hit was not malicious. @nfl please review your decision
Seeing as how the safety position was not the most effective last season, this latest development is not good news for the team.
Hail.