Jim Owczarski

jowczarski@enquirer.com

Nearly a week after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 18-16 at Paul Brown Stadium, and four days after Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict was suspended for a shoulder-to-helmet hit on Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, the National Football League handed out six fines totaling $83,665 for both teams on Friday afternoon.

Following the Dec. 13 regular season game, both teams combined for $145,000 worth of fines.

Burfict, who is appealing his three-game suspension, was not fined additionally for the hit or for running onto the field to confront Steelers players following Bengals running back Giovani Bernard’s concussion.

His suspension will be without pay, however.

Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter was fined $10,000 for coming out onto the field, which followed Burfict’s hit on Brown and precipitated Adam Jones’ 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Jones was fined $28,940 for contacting an official.

Bengals defensive lineman Domata Peko was fined $8,681 for his unnecessary roughness penalty, while defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry was fined $8,681 for unsportsmanlike conduct during the confrontation on the field with Porter.

Steelers guard Ramon Foster was fined $17,363 for a leg whip.

Steelers assistant coach Mike Munchak’s was fined $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct for pulling Reggie Nelson’s hair on the sideline.

The total from Saturday does not include any punishment for Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier for driving the top of his helmet into the jaw of Bernard, knocking Bernard unconscious and resulting in a fumble.

The play seemed to be in violation of the rule regarding leading with the crown of the helmet.

ARTICLE 8. INITIATING CONTACT WITH THE CROWN OF THE HELMET. It is a foul if a runner or tackler initiates forcible contact by delivering a blow with the top/crown of his helmet against an opponent when both players are clearly outside the tackle box (an area extending from tackle to tackle and from three yards beyond the line of scrimmage to the offensive team’s end line). Incidental contact by the helmet of a runner or tackler against an opponent shall not be a foul.

In his weekly video review of certain plays, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said several rules were at play, including being a defenseless receiver and becoming a runner. Blandino said "he is not a defenseless receiver at the time of contact." This was ruled on the field and Blandino affirmed this.

Blandino then broke down three elements of consideration within Article 8 and why the Shazier hit is considered a legal play.

“But there’s three elements to that rule. You have to line up your opponent, you have to lower your head, and you have to make forcible contact with the very top of the helmet. The key issue here is the line up. And when we’re talking about angles, and the players are moving at different angles, where you have Bernard is moving in this direction, Shazier is moving in this direction, then we don’t have the line up.

"You’re really dealing with the players moving in the same direction towards each other when this rule would apply. The theory being, when players are moving at angles, they don’t have as much opportunity to avoid that contact. That’s where the rule does not apply.

"You watch it here, we’re moving at angle, not a foul."

Blandino continued: "We certainly are concerned with players lowering their head. We don’t want players to lower their head to initiate contact. That’s why this rule was in place, to coach that, and to get that out of the game. And the players have done a great job and the players have done a great job. This crown of the helmet rule has not been called very often. We haven’t had a lot of fines in this area because we’re not seeing it very often. But we have to continue to look at this technique and make sure that where we can we eliminate it from the game and we prohibit players and deter players from dropping and using the crown of the helmet.”

He did say that this rule, along with all others, is reviewed every offseason and added that will continue to be a discussion topic.

Steelers corner Antwon Blake was not fined for creating helmet-to-helmet contact with Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert early in the game. The play was not penalized.

Blake's hit seemed to be in violation of an NFL rule regarding launching, which falls under Article 7, players in a defenseless posture.

(3) illegally launching into a defenseless opponent. It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body. (This does not apply to contact against a runner, unless the runner is still considered to be a defenseless player, as defined in Article 7.)

This play was not reviewed by Blandino.

The league would not comment on the assignment of referee John Parry to the game or the calls therein.

"We do not comment on officiating assignments," NFL spokesman Michael Signora said. "Each week the clubs provide a list of plays for NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino and his staff to review and provide candid feedback on. We do not comment on the conversations between Dean and the clubs. All officials are evaluated on every play of every game by the NFL officiating staff, both for calls that were made and those that were not."

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Other plays from Saturday of note that didn't result in a fine:

* Bengals safety Shawn Williams for a hitting-defenseless-receiver penalty, which league sources indicated Parry apologized to Marvin Lewis for calling.

* Steelers guard David DeCastro for an after-the-whistle pancake of Vontaze Burfict (not penalized).

* Bengals running back Jeremy Hill for leaving the bench area to run on to the field (not penalized).

* Burfict for also leaving the bench area (not penalized).

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