Sideline blow up in loss to Titans leads NFL to hit Cardinals head coach where it hurts

This fine is absurd

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Not only did the Tennessee Titans get a huge win in Week 5 by, well, winning the ball game, but they got another huge win: Brian Callahan’s coaching staff isn’t the big embarrassing story this time. No, that honor belongs to Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Jonathan Gannon.

Jonathan Gannon Slapped With Massive Fine

It was bad enough for Gannon to lose to the lowly Titans at home, made infinitely worse by collapsing in the fashion his team did. But now he’s being hit with a massive fine for his sideline blowup after RB Emari Demercado fumbled a would-be 72 yard touchdown on the goal line.

The Cardinals organization is fining Gannon the dramatic sum of $100,000 for how he conducted himself in Week 5. The wording of this news from ESPN Insider Adam Schefter and others strikes me as strange, though. “There will be no further discipline for Gannon” reads to me like the Cardinals actions are at least partly in service of satisfying the league office. But what did Gannon do to deserve such a serious penalty in the first place? Here’s the video if you missed it:

And if you need a refresher on what Demercado did to deserve Gannon’s fury, here’s the video of his extremely costly fumble:

Gannon made it clear he apologized in the aftermath to Demercado and the team as a whole, but a fine of this magnitude stacked on top of it? Is that as crazy as it sounds?

The Case For Fining Jonathan Gannon

To at least some players, the answer is no. Here’s former NFL defender Chris Long on his podcast “Green Light” discussing the slippery slope of a coach putting their hands on a player:

“You can’t do that. And I know there’s some fans out there like ‘well toughen up and all this’ because like their little league coach pushed them or something. But bro, this is a grown man game. We’re all grown. Don’t [expletive] put your hands on me. It’s a slippery because then what if it would have been Demercado turning and he jabs Gannon and just drops him?”

There’s no doubt putting your hands on a player is never going to be a good look as a coach. And it’s not an effective way to build player trust and respect, especially in 2025. But I think this punishment goes completely overboard.

Why Jonathan Gannon’s Fine Is Massive Overkill

I don’t think putting your hands on a player is something that should go undiscussed or even unpunished, but this is something that warrants an apology. Maybe it warrants a statement. Maybe it even warrants an internal fine of an undisclosed (smaller) amount. It’s about sending a message that this was stepping over the line, I understand that. But why are we making a martyr of a a replacement-level running back? This wasn’t a massive chewing-out of a starter. It wasn’t even a rotational backup. This is a guy who is lucky to even be on the roster. The only reason he was in the position to fumble that ball in the first place is because RB1 and RB2 are both on IR. Frankly, he’s the caliber of player you would expect to see waived on a Monday morning after such a disastrous mistake.

So I just am not buying that going nuclear on this guy is going to cause broad locker room issues. And as far as laying your hands on a player, of course it’s a bad look. Of course it could become a slippery slope if a player decided to escalate and swing back. But let’s not be soft and conflate things that aren’t similar. It’s pretty universal to tap, slap, and smack each other on the shoulder pads in football. It’s a universal way to both congratulate somebody, but also to say “c’mon man!”

Is it disrespectful to smack somebody’s chest plate in anger? Yes. Is it something that’s “ok” for a coach to do to his players? If today’s players say no, then I’ll side with them on that. But is it the same as somebody swinging on somebody? Of course not. Not even close. And most importantly, it’s not something that rises beyond the level of warranting an apology and perhaps a statement. $100,000 for a reaction that everybody in the world understands is an absurd overreaction by the Cardinals and by the league.

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