By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Dashon Goldson's one-game suspension was reduced to a $100,000 fine on appeal, the NFL announced Wednesday.
The league said Monday that Goldson would be suspended because of his "flagrant and repeat violation" of player safety rules. But that suspension was reduced by Matt Birk, the hearing officer in Goldson's appeal.
Birk, a former NFL center, is jointly appointed and compensated by the league and NFL Players Association to hear and decide appeals for on-field player discipline.
NFL vice president of football operations Merton Hanks imposed the original discipline on Goldson, who was cited for unnecessary roughness during the second quarter of Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints for "making direct, helmet-to-helmet contact with a defenseless receiver," according to the league.
The unnecessary-roughness penalty, called because of a helmet-to-helmet hit on Saints running back Darren Sproles, was Goldson's second in two weeks and fifth in two years.
"You had an unobstructed path to your opponent," Hanks wrote in a letter to Goldson informing him of the suspension. "It is clear that you lowered your head and unnecessarily rammed the left side of your helmet into the left side of your opponent's head. You delivered a forceful blow with your helmet and made no attempt whatsoever to wrap up your opponent or make a conventional tackle on the play. This illegal contact clearly could have been avoided."
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell denied Wednesday that the reduced penalty undermines the league's efforts to create a safer playing field.
"I don't agree with that," Goodell told reporters at NFL headquarters. "I haven't seen the decision yet. So I'd like to see the decision before I make any full comments.
"It's not that there wasn't a violation of the rule, and it's not that there were not consequences for violating the rule. So that, in and of itself, is a shift, and a positive shift that the culture is changing. But the culture doesn't change overnight, and we will probably always have violations of rules."
Goodell said he believes the league's safety initiatives are working. He said that was reinforced in a conference call Tuesday night with Hall of Famers John Madden and Ronnie Lott, who co-chair the NFL Player Safety Advisory Panel.
"The overwhelming reaction is that players are adjusting to the new rules, the new techniques," Goodell said. "It's being played, and they're being coached properly, and that is being seen by all the people watching the video. And no one watches more video than John Madden.
"So I do believe that this is a very positive shift in the culture. You're always going to have things that don't necessarily fit into that culture in a period of time, but people are recognizing when these hits don't fit into the context of the game."