On Sunday, the NFL handed Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid a $10,597 fine for his late hit on New England Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson. According to The Athletic's Joe Person, Reid won't appeal the fine as when he looked on the tape; it was clearly a late hit on the tight end.
Ben Watson leaves the field under his own power but did have his helmet taken from him. The late hit provided by Eric Reid. The two men not seeing eye to eye on Twitter this week fwiw. #Patriots pic.twitter.com/VKJK6X2U9e
— Mike Giardi (@MikeGiardi) August 23, 2019
The hit came in preseason Week 3. The hit drew an Unnecessary Roughness penalty, and Watson wouldn't play the rest of the game. After the hit, Reid helped Watson up as the two shared some words in the process. Luckily, the Patriots tight end is healthy and will be available to play Week 5 of the regular season, after he serves his time for a four-game PEDs suspension from the NFL.
There was thought to be some animosity between the two before the exhibition game. Earlier in that week, Reid criticized Jay-Z for his recent involvement in the NFL pertaining to social justice. He said, per ESPN's Tiffany Cross:
Ssince the $89 mil announcement w/the Players Coalition, what’s come of that? We get to pretend we care about social justice. We get to pretend we care about the black community, & we get to hide behind Malcolm Jenkins’ & Jay-Z’s face and not do anything.”
Watson's response, via Twitter:
“Quote starts with “”I could be completely wrong, but since…”
Yes Eric Reid you are wrong! You know the work many of us including Malcom Jenkins have done. No one entity owns this movement. We are all a continuation of the generations who fought before us. We need each other.”
But, Watson cleared the air after the fine. Noting that the two don't share any hate for each other, he said on Sunday, via Twitter:
“Eric did message me that night to apologize saying that he had watched the film and felt terrible for hitting me late. I accepted his apology and wished him the best. We’ve never had any “beef”. Fines, however, have once again proven to be inconsistent and relative. Shameful.”
The two appear to be okay with each other after the hit, and Reid is taking the blame for it. But, Watson does point to their being inconsistencies in the NFL's fining policy.
Reid's $10,000 fine is half the price of Ndamukong Suh's in which he pushed quarterback Baker Mayfield out of bounds.
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