Was Minkah Fitzpatrick’s hit on KC Concepcion dirty? Not according to the guy who took it, and not according to his head coach either.

Last week I wrote about the New York Jets safety’s hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver KC Concepcion in Week 5. The hit left Concepcion with a concussion and knocked him out of the rest of the game. Now the story has a few new chapters. Concepcion addressed the hit for the first time, Fitzpatrick revealed the NFL fined him, and the whole thing wrapped up about as well as anyone could have hoped.

Browns side sticks up for Minkah Fitzpatrick

Concepcion spoke with Browns reporters and said he didn’t think it was a dirty hit. He added that he saw it as just a football play:

“I think it was a football play, I don’t think it was a dirty hit,” stated Concepcion. 

He isn’t the only one in Cleveland who feels that way. Browns coach Todd Monken was asked about the hit after the game. Monken said he did not think it was a dirty play from Fitzpatrick, and he doesn’t consider Fitzpatrick a dirty player, period.

Fitzpatrick has now weighed in himself. He revealed this week that the league fined him for the hit, which I suspected was coming as soon as the flag hit the turf. He still stood by the way he played it, and said that he would appeal. 

“It was a football play in my opinion. Obviously we don’t like to see anybody get hurt. I’m happy to see that he’s back out practicing this week, but in my opinion it was a football play, a bang-bang play as their coach put it,” Fitzpatrick told Antwan Staley of the New York Daily News.

That last line is a nod to Monken’s comments, and it says plenty about how both sides have handled this.

The hit itself and why the fine makes sense

Look, I thought it was a great play from Fitzpatrick. He led with his shoulder. Concepcion braced himself at the catch point, and Fitzpatrick’s shoulder ended up near Concepcion’s head area. That drew an unnecessary roughness penalty at the time, and once the contact lands up there, a fine is almost automatic.

Getting fined stinks. Still, I’m glad that’s where it ended for Fitzpatrick. I never saw a real reason to think a suspension was on the table, but this is the NFL, and you never truly know what the league office is going to do. A fine and a “lesson learned” is the right outcome here. Hopefully, the NFL does the right thing too and accepts Fitzpatrick’s appeal. 

The best news out of all of this is that Concepcion is healthy. He has been cleared from the concussion protocol, and he will be ready to go on Sunday when the Browns face the Baltimore Ravens. Nobody wants to see a young receiver miss time over a play like this, and Cleveland gets him back right away.

A cool NFL moment

As for the Jets, Minkah Fitzpatrick has been a great addition. When he’s out there on the field, we see exactly how good of a player he is. He flies around, he hits hard, and he brings a physical edge to the back end of this defense. New York needs that.

The part that sticks with me, though, is the way the Browns responded. Concepcion and Monken had every opportunity to pile on. Concepcion was the one who got hurt, and Cleveland lost the game. Instead, both of them stuck up for Fitzpatrick when they didn’t have to. That’s a cool moment in a league where every big hit tends to turn into a shouting match.

My verdict hasn’t changed. It was a clean, physical football play that happened to end badly. Concepcion is back, Fitzpatrick took his fine, and the respect shown on both sides is going to be what people remember once this one fades.