Cowboys CB fined more for end-of-game facemask incident than guilty Steelers WR

Cowboys fans who stayed up all the way until the end of the team’s Week 5 tilt against Pittsburgh saw Steelers wide receiver George Pickens commit an egregious foul against cornerback Jourdan Lewis just after the gun sounded on Dallas’s 20-17 victory.

But nobody saw Lewis being the one to get punished more harshly by the league.

In its weekly report of fines handed out for the previous week, the NFL declared that Pickens would be docked $10,230 for the act of unnecessary roughness that came after Lewis recovered a fumble to finally end the multiple-lateral last-ditch effort by the Steelers offense on the game’s final play.

Lewis, ball in hand, got in Pickens’s face and clearly said something to which the third-year receiver took offense. Pickens grabbed Lewis’s facemask and yanked him the the ground.

Lewis was also fined by the league- for taunting- but incredibly, his fine amounted to $11,255, over a thousand dollars more than Pickens.

Huh?

Fines are levied according to a pre-determined menu whereby each violation equates to a set dollar amount. But it’s hard to watch a replay of the Cowboys/Steelers end-of-game sequence and think that anything Lewis might have said was somehow worse than what Pickens did in retaliation.

True, Lewis hurled some words. But Pickens could have left a fellow player injured.

Lewis and Pickens were getting after each other all night. As the Cowboys players made their way to the locker room after the game, cameras captured Lewis saying, “Pittsburgh need a new receiver. George Pickens weak.”

Per Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the 29-year-old veteran expressed regret for the comment.

“Honestly, I shouldn’t have said that,” Lewis said. “It was an emotional game. There was some chatter on the field. One thing led to another. He had a moment, I had a moment. It was too emotional. I shouldn’t have said it.”

Now both Lewis and Pickens will pay for their respective emotional outbursts… but Lewis will inexplicably pay more.

Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson was also fined- also $11,255- for a late hit that extended Pittsburgh’s fourth-quarter drive that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown.