Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown gets hit with absurd fine for unflagged block vs. Bears

The NFL has made a display of announcing fines for the previous week's games every Saturday this season, in a definite effort to deter the kind of plays that drew said fines. Last week, Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond was fined $15,138 for a block on Chargers safety Derwin James in Week 10. To call the fine a little iffy might be an underestimation.

On Saturday, Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was fined $43,709 for a block against the Chicago Bears in Week 11. He was not flagged for the supposed offense, unnecessary roughness for lowering his head to initiate contact apparently, as is common (and a degree of ridiculous) when fines are doled out.

St. Brown received by far the heftiest fine among players who were fined for Week 11.

Here's a look at the play. St. Brown, No. 14 in blue of course, is at the top of the screen.

What? St. Brown did not lower his head at all. He absorbed as much contact as he took from Bears' safety Jaquan Brisker, and Brisker hit him first. It was ahead of the run, like Raymond's "fineable" offense from the previous week, but in the same direction as the play and not far from it. Hardly egregious, and certainly not penalty or fine worthy.

It's hard to say it better than Erik Schlitt of Pride of Detroit did.

Bears wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, on the podcast with his brother this past week, called out Lions' linebacker Julian Okwara for this hit in last Sunday's game. Okwara was not flagged, or subsequently fined.

There is plenty of similar reaction to the play and St. Brown's hefty fine on social media.

And as Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports noted, via the report from NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, New York Jets cornerback "Sauce" Gardner was fined $30,000 less than St. Brown for suplexing Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs last Sunday.

Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown gets hit with absurd fine for block against the Bears

It was not a factor in determining his fine amount. But as Justin Rogers of the Detroit News noted, St. Brown's weekly game check is a little more than $52,000. So he's losing roughly 84 percent of his Week 11 paycheck to this fine.

The NFLPA has complained about the excessiveness, and perhaps most importantly inconsistency, of fines amounts from the league. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reminded everyone that players can, and often do, appeal fines. St. Brown is sure to appeal this one. At minimum it's excessive, and getting right down to it it should be completely erased upon review.