David Thomas fined $7,500

That's very excessive.

Ridiculous! Thomas basically just pushed a guy and the guy falls down. That's it. That's $7500.00? I would say the same if a Colt had done the same to Thomas. The NFL is becoming way too soft with this stuff. There is no crying in baseball!

I think he gets a sick pleasure from fining us.

Bonehead play for sure, but a fine?

The NFL has gone soft. How long until they just velcro some flags to the QB's hips?

That's ridiculous. The player wasnt even injuried.

Mike,
Has Roger Goddell ever played football...in any capacity? I really believe he has no clue what happens on the field and is clearly more focused on generating as much money as he can from the game-

Due to his immataruity, lack of discipline or whatever, THOMAS SINGLEHANDEDLY LOST THE GAME FOR US. i could care less what they fine him!

I'm not a reactionist, but Goodell needs to go. Why is it that we don't hear about fines to other teams. This is BS and I'm sure that Mr. Kraft is regretting his support of this marinette. While I support making the NFL more safe, this was simply an agressive play, it was not as if Thomas put his helmet on the side of the guy's knees.

Might as well be a rule then, that any time unneccessary roughness is called its an automatic fine. That is what this says to me because it was as straightforward as it gets, a block after the whistle. I wouldn't even call it a "hit" because all he did was pushed in a blocking motion like tight ends usally do. Other guy fell, probably because he heard the whistle and decided to make like a kicker or soccer player. Is this really what the game has come to?

Goodell just keeps ruining the game we all love. Can we as fans oust him? He's getting out of hand, and his silly fines and biased calls are making a lot of fans not want to watch the games anymore, or at least, people are watching with less heart behind their favorite team.

It was obvious that Thomas didn't hear the whistle. The gut had his back to the play and was going full force, like their told to until they hear the whistle. I could see if he gave up then gave another charge at an opponent, but he was just doing his job.
And yet The assassin that hit Brady below the knees gets no punishment. Ugh!

Mike,
Are any lists or stats kept on these fines? I tried googling it and looked on the NFL website and others, but I could not find anything. I was amazed at how many articles I found though. Guys are being fined left and right, 10K, 20K, 35K, 45K, 75K, it totally out of control.
Anyway, if you can find a list or try compiling one I'm sure people would love to see it. Maybe you should find and publish NoGood_at_alls personal email address too. I’m sure we would all love to send him some sweet messages!

What about the helmet to helmet hit on Cassel when was in his slide? To me, that was much more blantant and potentially harmful.

This fine situation is bordering on ludicrous. The Dave Thomas hit was a continuation of a block, not an intentional whacking to an unsuspecting player because of any hot-headed reaction on his part. The game itself was very disciplined on both sides with very few penalties called and no players getting chippy or out of hand, and that should have been considered when deciding if his hit after the whistle was worthy of a fine.

Goodell's reaction reminds me of the 1980's when Boston Mayor Ray Flynn put police inside Boston Garden, ready to arrest the hockey players on assault charges if a fight broke out. Absolutely ridiculous.

The new NFL should abolish the old garbage holding, illegal procedure, etc. penalties and just go with $5k, $10k and $20k penalties..."And that will be a $10,000 penalty on number 34 of the offence."

What the hell is going on with football now adays? Fined? For that? A push in the back. Roger should get an earful for this one. Get him POLAMALU. What the hell is this? Touch football. Next time someone gets penalize for a face mask... Make sure GOODELL knows about it, cause he forgot to fine that too. And all the turf toe injures, I think the players footies got stepped on, send the videos to GOODELL. I think he forgot to fine the culprits.

Maybe this is Goodell's plan to get money for all the old retired players that have been going after the NFL for some type of compensation for medical bills. If he keeps this up he may just have some money put aside because it seems to be getting more and more ridiculous each week!!!!!!!! Pretty soon all the players will be playing flag footbal or better yet two hand touch.

Please Mike, please do your part with fellow reporters and insiders to either get Goodell out of office or stop publishing these insane fines.

There is nothing that we can do about these stupid fines, so stop telling us about them. Please.

Inconsistent...that's how I'd describe Goodell's reign thus far. He fines for some hits like this one, that were clearly not malicious or harmful, and lets others go that have a more sinister appearance. Have we ever established that a whistle was blown when Green-Ellis went down? If not, the play was not over, and Thomas had every right to keep playing...

I guess every personal foul in the NFL is a fine now.

Ooh, what's the fine for a false start?

As mad as I was about Thomas' penalty I actually believe that he didn't hear the whistle. He was correctly penalized for his error and, unfortunately, it influenced the outcome of that game.

But this fine is absolutely wrong.

To fine a play like that is taking things to the point of total absurdity. There was absolutely no anger or confrontation in that block. Here is a football player with an exemplary record that records a block late by about 1 second in a very noisy stadium and he says he didn't hear the whistle.

Goodell really appears like he is being vindictive on this fine. Its either that or the guy is a total idiot!

the penalty ended the game. why wasn't that enough? this is ridiculous, biased, arbitrary, and a detriment to the game.

Thomas should be happy he only got a fine and not cut from the team!

David's problems with anger management cost the Patriots a chance to win the game.

How can this be worthy of a fine when Brady was hit below the knees on a play that had the offender crawling ahead on his belly to execute it and he gets away with no fine on a season ending injury that could have been avoided. This is starting to make me sick!

Wow. Good luck getting these players to sign any kind of agreement now.

Fidel Goodell strikes again!

What I wouldn't give to have Tagliabue come back

I'm glad most on the board have it right as it was obvious that he didn't hear the whistle if you saw the play. BJGE was tackled behind him and the hit Thomas was fined for couldn't have been cleaner....it was basically a glorified push. Unlucky for Thomas and the Pats.

rgoodell@nfl.aol.com

So let's all get this straight: It's okay to take out the league's MVP at the knees, which is a clear violation of the NFL rules, and cost the guy his season and possibly his career. You won't be fined, hell, you won't even be penalized during the game!!

But, be a back-up TE for the Patriots on the potential game winning drive in Indianapolis and finish off a block vs. the Colts and not only will we flag you, take you out of possible tying FG range and possible 4th and short range which will cost your team the game, but we'll later on fine you.

Good to see the NFL has it's priorities in order and their collectives heads on straight. Have to protect those Colts LB's/Linemen.

That was a vicious hit! I'm surprised that anonymous Colt player survived! He probably has a family!

Paul Pedersen

You totally missed the point, if you can't following along, go post on the kiddie pages! It is not about Thomas, it's about the abuse of power by NoGoodAtAll...

More fine info. (no pun intended)..
Minnesota's star defensive end Jared Allen was fined a whopping $50,000 by the NFL. Jacksonville defensive tackle John Henderson and Cincinnati guard Andrew Whitworth were fined $10,000 each for fighting each other. Henderson got an additional $5,000 fine for illegal hands to the face. Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley was fined $10,000 for slamming Washington quarterback Jason Campbell to the ground in Monday night's game.
Just to name a few. I guess this is how the NEW NFL plans on handling it financial problems, Take it out on the player. Gene Upshaw must be turning in his grave! Do the players even have representation any more?

I thought penalties were mark off in yards, not dollars. I must have missed the rule change.

Since when is a 15-yard penalty that arguably cost the Patriots the game not penalty enough? Does every personal foul now carry a fine?

David does not have a problem with anger management. You don't even know the guy! He just was playing hard. The play was going on behind him! We want guys who play hard on the team.