The NFL has decided to take action against Lamarcus Joyner for the hit the caused Teddy Bridgewater's concussion during the Rams/Vikings tilt on Sunday.
The NFL fined Joyner $23,152 for a late hit to the Vikings quarterback. The play itself had Bridgewater running for a first down before sliding to the ground an obvious attempt to give himself up and go down. Joyner was coming in from coverage when he saw Bridgewater take off as he ran to make the tackle Bridgewater went to slide creating a bang bang type of play that seemed excessive in slow motion.
To the naked eye the hit itself looked innocuous with the only area of interest being how Joyner spun around at the very last moment grazing Bridgewater's helmet with his shoulder. It was that hit that forced the Bridgewater's head to bounce off the turf causing the concussion while also knocking Bridgewater out in the process.
The main thing about this hit is that everything happened so fast and it initially looked like Joyner was just coming to wrap up Bridgewater but he did it with such force that he ended up in the air sideways upon contact. If you slow down the replay you can clearly see Bridgewater's feet knock into Joyner's ankle forcing him off the ground. The reaction to this play was only magnified when Mike Zimmer refused to talk to Jeff Fisher as a result of the so called "dirty play".
The Rams defense does not play at half speed, ever so every now and then big impact plays happen. The seriousness of the situation when Bridgewater was down caused all NFL fans hearts to skip a beat, but Joyner did not look malicious in his actions.
