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mnf hit=75k

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jimotis4heisman

jimotis4heisman

Banned
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1951069

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Associated Press
<!-- template inline -->NEW YORK -- Jacksonville safety Donovin Darius was fined $75,000 by the NFL on Tuesday for a hit across the neck of Green Bay's Robert Ferguson that left the wide receiver temporarily paralyzed.



<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER width="5" type="block" height="1"></TD><TD width=275>
a_ferguson_il.jpg
</TD></TR><TR><TD width=275>[font=verdana, arial, geneva]Ferguson temporarily lost feeling in his legs after this clothesline from Darius.[/font]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>



Darius, who was ejected from the game, wasn't suspended because league disciplinarian Gene Washington noted that this was the first time he had been fined for a violation.



The hit came in the fourth quarter of Jacksonville's 28-25 win over the Packers.



Ferguson caught a pass over the middle, and Darius hit him across the helmet and neck with a forearm. Ferguson lay on the ground and was taken off the field, regaining feeling in his legs later, after he was hospitalized. He remained in the hospital Sunday and Monday nights. ESPN.com's John Clayton reports Ferguson was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. He is officially listed as out for Friday's game against Minnesota with head and neck injuries.



Darius said in a statement that he spoke with Ferguson on Monday in the hospital.



"We had a good conversation in which he told me he has no hard feelings," Darius said. "We agreed that it was a part of the game. The most important thing is that Robert is OK."



Darius, whose annual salary is more than $4 million a season, was ejected from the game by referee Ed Hochuli.



"You violently and unnecessarily struck your opponent in the neck and head area with your forearm," Washington said in his letter to Darius.



Packers quarterback Brett Favre said he expected a heavy fine.



"I don't know him personally. He seems like a good guy and it's an unfortunate hit," Favre said. "And his comments were he was going for the ball. Maybe he was. Maybe his sole intention was to knock the ball out, but it just didn't seem like it.



"You'd hate to think that you'd ruin a guy's career, and Fergie, by all accounts, will come back from it. But mentally will he be the same? I don't know," he said.
 
MililaniBuckeye said:
Tatum didn't do illegal hits, ass-snorter...then again, you wouldn't have known that, seeing as you didn't have TV when you were a kid in Asspackinstan.
Click to expand...

so if Darius did the same thing 30 years ago, would you still call him a "thug ass"? Jimotis is right, the only difference between the two are the rules at the time they played.
 
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iambrutus said:
the hit was a cheap shot, but lets be honest, only 1 person knows what he was really trying to do, granted it looks very very bad, but looks dont prove intent.
Click to expand...
Very true...but nobody believed Robert Reynolds claim of giving a neck massage either:roll2:

The intent was obvious IMO
 
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Living down here I have gotten to interact with a bunch of the Jag's players(even though I'm a die-hard Steeler fan)through work and I would honestly be suprised if DD did that on purpose.

He is as physical a football player as there is in the NFL but up untill that very hit he has never been known as a cheap shot artist. I personally think he was going for the big hit and it just happened faster than he thought and he couldn't lay the shoulder in, only the forearm. Anyway, best thing is the WR is not crippled.

Also I would have to agree with Tibs, in 1974 they scrape that WR up and play ball after congratulating DD on a big hit, in 2004 people think he's a criminal. My mother used to drive 75 mph with me in the front seat sans seat belt when I was a kid in the 70's, now they'd lynch her for that. She certainly didn't have any evil intent then or now, the rules just changed(for the better obviously).

I think thats pretty much what we had with Darius, but like a previous poster noted, DD is the only one who will ever know.
 
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Jax, good post and I agree its out of character...however, football has been known to bring people out of character in the heat of the moment. In retrospect, it may not have been intentional in DD's mind...but at that moment, it was.

Just my opinion...
 
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regardless of intent players at that level have to be smarter than that. Yeah... this isn't the 60's anymore and the game has evolved since then. I don't think he was try to paralyze him (which he came close to doing)... I think he was trying to make the Sportscenter highlights. That is what is wrong with sports these days.... the highlights come first and the the game comes second.
 
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