BEREA (92.3 The Fan) – Joe Thomas doesn’t think the NFL should be using plays that draw flags or fines as promotional material in videos and pictures advertising the league.

And it’s hard to argue he’s wrong.

“That’s one thing I’d like to see the NFL do, is not use highlights of plays that were penalties like celebrating,” Thomas said. “If you celebrate with the football they like to use that as a way to market the game but yet they fine and penalize players for it. Same thing with the big hits.”

Thomas specifically referenced the league using pictures of a James Harrison hit on Mohamed Massaquoi in 2010 on NFL.com that left the former Browns receiver concussed as a prime example.

“It was a penalty and then they were using that as, like, the cover photo of something they were trying to sell,” Thomas said. “I think it’s a double standard that I’d like to see the NFL look at a little bit.

“If they’re going to try to legislate something out of the game they shouldn’t also try and promote it from a marketing standpoint.”

Videos of players celebrating touchdowns that draw unsportsmanlike conduct fouls in the wake of the league’s crackdown on taunting this season yet also appear in commercials and videos online also bother Thomas.

The questions to Thomas came in the wake of Titans running back Antonio Andrews posting on Instagram Monday the hit he made on Browns safety Jordan Poyer that hospitalized him for 2 nights with a lacerated kidney and resulted in him being placed on injured reserve.

Andrews’ vicious blindside hit on Poyer did draw a 15-yard penalty for an illegal hit but Thomas didn’t want to get into whether or not the NFL should adopt similar targeting rules the NCAA has.

“It seems that the NFL is hesitant to get into ejections because they don’t want to determine the outcome of a game by removing somebody from the field of play,” Thomas said. “Even on defenseless hits on receivers they haven’t done it yet like they have in college. I think they believe that the heavy fine system they have in place and the heavy penalties right now is enough.

“I think there’s always going to be certain plays that happen in a game that you try to legislate out but when guys are playing the way they’re playing aggressively, violently and as fast as they can, sometimes those things happen. You don’t want them to happen but even if you do have ejections, I don’t know that you’re going to completely always eliminate that type of a play.”