The three on-field fights that highlighted NFL Week 9 have been a primary talking point on sports talk TV so far this week, with the Colorado Springs Gazette's Woody Paige saying the altercations just add "to a problem season that the NFL is having" and serve as an "excuse for more people to turn off football." He said the NFL needs to "step in and do something” ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 11/6). ESPN’s Louis Riddick said players "have to be aware ... people are looking at the NFL with an absolute microscope, a laser focus right now." Riddick: "They are looking to go ahead and find reasons to not like NFL football. ... Don't start acting like this because people are looking for ways to rip you apart anyway and affect your ability to make money and impact your bottom line. If you start doing this, you’re just giving people more ammunition to turn it off." He said this is one time the league needs to "go ahead and say, in this instance, ‘Knock it off’” (“NFL Live,” ESPN, 11/6). ESPN's Max Kellerman: "Fights will happen from time to time ... but cheap shots? What is this about? Not only is it wrong, but it's a bad look." He added, "This is bad. It is going to turn people off and no one is going to defend it" ("First Take," ESPN, 11/6). The NFL suspended Buccaneers WR Mike Evans for one game for his role in one of the fights, but the other participants will play this week. That includes Bengals WR A.J. Green, who was ejected Sunday after grabbing Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey and slamming him to the ground. FS1's Skip Bayless said of Green not being punished, “I don't know how a sport so concerned with its public image such as the National Football League can get away with saying, ‘That's okay. We're okay’” (“Undisputed,” FS1, 11/7).
DON'T MAKE TOO MUCH OUT OF IT: FS1’s Colin Cowherd said he did not "want to overreact" to the fighting outbreak. He said, "I just think you can sense sometimes in a season. We are at a breaking point." NFL.com's Bucky Brooks: "You are seeing A.J. Green and some of the other guys, Mike Evans, they are tired of losing. The frustration builds to the point that when you are getting whooped on the field, you want to explode” (“Speak for Yourself,” FS1, 11/6). The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan said, “I hesitate to make any large-scale generalizations about it. I would prefer to think this is one of the weirder days in the history of the league. I never remember a day with multiple incidents of that scale. I'm just going to assume that we’re not going to see that again.” ESPN’s Kate Fagan: "It’s the middle of the season. It's the equivalent of Wednesday in a work week and a time when you would get most agitated and can't quite see the finish line. I'd like to see some data on when they have the most fights" ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 11/6).
