Thursday, January 24, 2013

Fine-ally: Brady hit for $10K after slide-kick on Reed

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Tom Brady doesn't have a "dirty" reputation, but that doesn't mean he's immune to punishment for wrongdoing.

Brady, who had been under scrutiny this week for his slide-kick on Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed Sunday in the New England Patriots' AFC Championship loss, was fined for the play. (photo: Keith Allison, Flickr)

NFLcom's Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that Brady was tapped for $10,000. Brady likely didn't have any intent to injure Reed, but his reaction in trying to protect himself wasn't of the safe variety.

It was a fair judgement. While Brady is one of the handful of star players who gets what many consider "preferential treatment," the league had to make an example of him.

If anything, the slap on the wrist will give the NFL a little leverage in their player safety/"we treat everyone the same" argument, even if it's not totally legit. And 10-grand to Brady is pennies to the rest of us.

Brady apologized to Reed early this week for the infraction, which was not flagged at the time, and Reed was cool with it.

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