Three Weeks Later, NFL Finally Admits Mistake and Fines Santonio Holmes
By Larry Brown February 21, 2009 - Posted in Football

The NFL may have tried their best to sweep this story under the rug, but they can’t slip it past me. Oh no. Three weeks after the Super Bowl ended and long after the talks about the questionable officiating died down, the NFL announced that Santonio Holmes was fined $10,000 for his endzone celebration following his game-winning touchdown catch. Holmes’ celebration was pretty blatant, and because he used the ball as a prop, he should have been immediately flagged. Jeff J was on top of this from the moment the issue arose and I really can’t see how the officials missed this during the game.

The issue is long over and I’m not about to start another Steelers conspiracy argument but I’m just upset that it took this long for the NFL to announce their mistake. By waiting three weeks to fine Holmes it appears more and more like they were trying to bury the issue and cover up their error. When asked for his thoughts, LeBron James was disgusted by the fine. LeBron could think the rule is wrong, but as long as it’s there, it should apply to all teams and players equally, and certainly shouldn’t have been missed in only the most important football game of the season — the freaking Super Bowl.

About Larry Brown:
Larry Brown has over nine years of professional sports media experience, working in online, radio, and TV capacities. He recently was a nationally syndicated sports radio host. Follow him on twitter @LBSports
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2 Comments
  • SpinMax

    In a way that’s worse than 3 years ago when they declared that all the proper calls were made
    against the Seahawks, even the 15yarder when Hasselbeck tackled the DB which was complete
    horsecrap…course that play wouldn’t have happened if not for the phantom holding a couple plays
    before where Seattle should have been on the 1 after a 28yard pass.

  • Jeff J

    Thanks for the props Larry. I am very surprised they actually went back and fined him later. They are basically saying they made a mistake. They would have been smarter public relations wise to just letting this one go. Lebron shouldn’t be disgusted by the fine, he should be disgusted that it took them 3 weeks to make a call that should have been made on the field. I can see how they missed the call however. Look at the picture in this article. You can see the closest ref isn’t even looking at Holmes.