Raiola Says NFL Will Not Fine Him; One Day Later, NFL Fines Him
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola said Tuesday the NFL will not fine him for his actions in Sunday's game against the New England Patriots.
About 24 hours later, league spokesman Michael Signora told Tom Pelissero of CBS Sports that the NFL will indeed fine Raiola, though not for the offense most expected.
After New England tacked on a late touchdown with the game already well in hand, Raiola dove at the knees of defensive tackle Zach Moore when the Lions took a knee for the final play of the game. Patriots defense tackle Vince Wilfork called Raiola out, saying it was a stupid move.
Video showed that earlier in the game Raiola also appeared to try to punch Moore twice. Raiola brushed off that description of the contact.
"It just looked bad," Raiola said. "I hit him right in the top of the shoulder pad. If you look at the way we release on screens, we try to club them up the field, you know what I mean? It's called 'club up the field.' It's not a punch in the head. People look at that like it looks violent. Well, this is a violent sport."
The NFL evidently disagreed; the clubbing is the action for which Raiola will be fined.
Raiola had described those blows as normal, and he had also dismissed the idea he behaved poorly on the final play of the game.
"I don't know about regrets," Raiola said. "I don't live life with regrets. I didn't intentionally try to hurt anybody, I didn't try to do anything out of the ordinary. I would have gotten a FedEx letter [fine from the league] for that. I just play the game. I didn't make it a big deal. Everybody else did."
Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said Monday that he spoke with Raiola and that the team does not condone his behavior.
