Lamarcus Joyner's illegal hit that knocked Teddy Bridgewater from Sunday's game -- a 21-18 win for the Minnesota Vikings over the St. Louis Rams -- brought many guttural reactions.
The most notable came from NBC studio analyst Rodney Harrison during Sunday Night Football's telecast.
"That's a dirty hit," Harrison said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "That's a dirty hit. It's a cheap shot right to the helmet...I wasn't surprised because it happened to me in 2006. Bobby Wade came and chopped my knees and tore my knee up. I'm lying on the ground, and I look at Jeff Fisher and he's smiling and laughing. So this is typical of Jeff Fisher-type teams."
During his press conference Monday, Fisher came prepared to react to the comments, laying into Harrison's past.
"I wouldn't say I took things personal, but it was kind of a personal attack on me," Fisher said. "Again, I think you have to consider the source. I saw it last night on the airplane. You're talking about a guy that had a great career. I mean, he played a long time, he was hard to defend, he was a really active defensive player. But this is coming from a guy that had 18 unnecessary roughness penalties, seven personal fouls, four roughing the passer penalties, a total of 77 penalties in his career and was voted three times the dirtiest player in the National Football League and was suspended for a hit, a helmet-to-helmet hit on Jerry Rice in 2002. This is where these comments are coming from. I'll just say this. Since 2000, it's been a privilege and honor for me to be on the competition committee. And our main focus ... is player safety. So for Rodney to come out and say that I did something like that is absolutely absurd."
Which Rams intern had to look up all those stats for Fisher?
"I think a good lesson to be learned from this is control your emotions immediately after the game and go back and look at the tape before you jump to conclusions," Fisher said. "Clearly, Mike's and my handshake was very short. He didn't say a word. I went out to congratulate him. I was going to ask him how his quarterback was and congratulate him on the win and he was gone. I understand that, but you also need to control your emotions after a game and look at tape and then adjust accordingly. Again, I don't know who they play this week. I don't care, but we've moved on. We're on to Chicago."
Whether he agrees or not, having Williams on his staff and the history of Fisher-led teams committing penalties is something the coach will have to deal with and answer.
Watching the Rams defense, it's clear that they fly hard to the ball and their defensive backs in particular make several jarring hits a game.
"We're gonna play fast, we're gonna play physical, we're gonna play furious and we're gonna play contact football," he said. "What bothers me right now is the stuff before and after the whistle: defensive offsides. ... I don't have to worry about the manner in which our players play. They play hard."
And sometimes playing fast and physical will lead to plays that are illegal, like Joyner's on Sunday, which will lead to questions about Fisher teams being dirty, which will lead to him defending himself.
