Last Friday night in Brazil, Chargers defensive lineman Teair Tart gave an open-handed blow to the helmet of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Somewhat surprisingly, Tart wasn’t ejected. Not surprisingly at all, Tart was fined.
Via Kris Rhim of ESPN.com, the league imposed a financial penalty for Tart’s actions.
As Rhim notes, the standard fine for a first-offense striking infraction is $12,172. All fines for on-field misconduct are typically announced on the Saturday afternoon following the prior weekend’s games.
The league’s explanation for not ejecting Tart doesn’t mesh with the rulebook, which makes no distinction between a closed fist and an open hand.
As noted by Rhim, Chiefs coach Andy Reid was also confused by the decision to not send Tart to the showers.
“I don’t understand that rule,” Reid said Monday. “I guess it’s open-hand, fist, whatever, I don’t know. I don’t know what their decision was on that. But he definitely got hit in the head pretty hard, whether it was an open fist or a closed fist.”
Generally speaking, the league is reluctant to remove players from games. The fact that Tart wasn’t disqualified one night after a spit to the jersey of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott resulted in a quick exit for Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter made the decision to let Tart stay in the game more than a little confusing.
As one high-level source with another team explained it in response to our item regarding the decision not to eject Tart, the question of whether the player on the receiving end of the slap exaggerated the reaction may have been a factor. (After seeing a different angle of the hit, however, the same source conceded that it was not a flop by Kelce.)
Rhim adds that Tart took to social media after the game, posting a movie clip of a slap with this caption: “I’m too swift with it even in Brazil.” Which, per Rhim, sparked a flood of racist images in response to Tart’s comment.
Which further confirms that social media generally sucks.