Did you know that throwing a football in the stands gets an NFL player fined? Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook found out as he was fined $7,426 for throwing the ball in the stands during the Vikings’ Week 6 game against the Miami Dolphins.
A CBA rule has it that if Cook completes an “online remedial training course” and doesn’t get fined for the rest of the season, his fine will be reduced by 25% to $5,941.
I have no clue what you can learn from a training course about not throwing a football into the stands and we don’t know if Cook took the course or not, but he sure acted like he was being punished, by repeatedly typing “4 will not throw [football] in the stands after touchdown.”
Such masterful trolling.
Cook then posted an important message telling kids to stay in school and to not break the rules.
Now I know many will point out that a $7,500 fine is like pennies to someone in the middle of a $63 million contract. But the idea of fining someone that much for tossing a souvenir in the stands for a fan to keep seems like one of those ludicrous NFL rules. They have a few dozen footballs during a game so it’s not like they’ll run out if a few go into the stands. And a football costs a couple hundred bucks? Have the player pay for a new ball and leave it at that.
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
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