Two New Orleans Saints defensive linemen have been fined by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct, Chase Young for $14,926 and Christen Miller for $11,915, both for a violent gesture made on the same snap of the Saints’ 34-27 win over the New York Giants on Sunday, October 18.
The penalties appeared on the league’s weekly accountability list on Saturday, October 24, the day before New Orleans meets the Pittsburgh Steelers at Stade de France in the first regular-season game ever staged in Paris. Together with an $8,381 fine for defensive tackle Vernon Broughton, the Saints’ bill from the Giants game came to $35,222.
What the league punished
Both gesture fines are logged at the same moment, with less than 40 seconds left in the third quarter at MetLife Stadium. That was shortly after Daniel Carlson’s 51-yard field goal had pushed New Orleans in front 27-10. The list does not describe what Young and Miller did, and the moment was not shown on the game broadcast, so it is not known whether the two were celebrating together or acting separately. Mike Florio reported that the players may appeal. Neither fine carries a suspension.
Broughton was fined for a hit to the head or neck area of a quarterback with 3:39 left in the second quarter. The Giants used two quarterbacks that afternoon, Jameis Winston and J.J. McCarthy, and New Orleans sacked them five times.
The new celebration rules
The fines test the joint guidance the league and the players’ union issued on Wednesday, October 7, after what union executive director JC Tretter called “an unusual spike”: 20 celebration fines handed out across the second and third weeks of the season. That statement stopped punishing players for mimicking a drink, and an appeals officer rescinded the earlier fines for Kyle Juszczyk and Jake Ferguson.
The same statement kept three kinds of gestures off limits: those that depict violence, including guns, other weapons or gang signs; those that depict smoking or drug use; and sexual gestures. Any of them can bring a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, a fine or both. For conduct in a gray area, the league promised to contact the player before handing down discipline. “When something falls into a gray area, communication and education should come before punishment,” Tretter said at the time.
Because violent gestures sit on the banned list rather than in the gray area, the guidance required no warning before these fines. The appeals side of the celebration debate is covered in our story on Jameson Williams’ rescinded fines. The rest of the Week 6 discipline list, headed by Fred Warner’s $65,673, is in our Week 6 fines story.
What comes next
Any appeal goes to a hearing officer appointed jointly by the league and the union. The win over the Giants left New Orleans at 2-4 before the Paris game on Sunday, October 25. The Saints are off in Week 8.
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