Bears defender gets dealt a last minute lump of coal in his stocking for his actions last Saturday against the Packers
The NFL punished DE Austin Booker for his hits on QB Jordan Love.
Last Saturday’s game between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers was a highly emotional game from start to finish and that’s exactly what you want to see from these rivalry games, much less the league’s oldest and most heated rivalry.
A lot of flags there thrown during the game and a lot of tempers flared throughout all four quarters, and into overtime. The most egregious act came in the first quarter when Bears defensive end Austin Booker sacked Packers quarterback Jordan Love on a helmet-to-helmet hit.
It was a bang-bang play that warranted a second roughing the passer penalty on Booker and Love was forced to leave the game and not return with a concussion.
“You get in these big games and you can get a little bit emotional because it’s a division rival and you want to make an impact. We don’t want to shy away from that,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson explained. “We want to play aggressive, and we want to be a very physical team.
“Booker’s [hit] against Jordan Love, that’s one hundred percent a flag where he ends up getting concussed. It’s not what anybody wants. But at the same time, that one is a more difficult one to coach just from a technique perspective. We’re trying to go after the quarterback and it’s a bang-bang play like that.”
While he was punished on the field with a 15-yard penalty, everyone knew it wouldn’t be the end of it and on Saturday the NFL gave Booker a last minute lump of coal in his Christmas stocking.
NFL fined DE Austin Booker for hits on QB Jordan Love
When the NFL fines were announced for Week 16, Booker was fined a total of $11,636 for his two hits on Love, something Booker was expecting to come after speaking with the media earlier in the week.
“If they want to, they can,” Booker said, via Brad Biggs. “Shoot, we’re just playing football. Whatever happens, happens. I pray for him but he’s out there on the football field just like everybody else. Injuries happen every day. Football is football.”
It’s truthfully a tough place to be as a defender. Your job is to bring down the quarterback by any means necessary and the league is making it harder for defenders to execute their job correctly with the way these plays are being enforced.
“That’s the cost of doing business, unfortunately, sometimes,” Johnson said to Jeff Joniak on ESPN Chicago. “We’re certainly conscious of it, I know that’s not (Booker’s) intention. None of our guys play that way, that’s not how we’re coached, or we’re built.”
Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson was also hit with a $6,111 fine for unnecessary roughness that occurred for jumping on the pile on the opening kickoff, a that play ended with a 15-yard penalty.
It was a chippy game way before that play and continued to be that way all game long with a couple of questionable plays on both sides. Including another egregious one that wasn’t called during the game or enforced based on the fines announced.
CB Keisean Nixon not fined for dirty hit on WR DJ Moore
Earlier in the game before Booker’s hit that injured Love, Bears wide receiver DJ Moore took a pretty tough shot from Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon when Moore turned his back after running a route and was hit from behind by Nixon.
Moore briefly left the field for just one play before returning. The hit was well away from the play and did not receive any penalty during the game and the NFL decided not to fine Nixon either, which is kinda ridiculous when you watch the play because this actually looked intentional.
However, Moore still got the last laugh, making a couple big plays late in the game including the walk-off touchdown in overtime with Nixon draped all over him in coverage.
While Nixon wasn’t fined, two Packers players were. Wide receiver Jayden Reed was fined $10,880 for taunting (which he was also flagged for) and defensive tackle Warren Brinson was fined $4,981 for unnecessary roughness on a facemask (also was flagged during the game).
It’s clear this rivalry is going to get even more heated moving forward after that kind of game and we could even get Round 3 in the playoffs depending on how the NFC standings shake out over the final two weeks of the season.
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