FLOWERY BRANCH, Georgia On Friday, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith responded to reports that the team had been fined for violating injury report rules.
The Falcons were fined $75,000 and Smith was fined $25,000 for violating the NFL Injury Report Policy prior to their Week 7 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to multiple media outlets who were informed of the infraction by the NFL on Friday.
Bijan Robinson, the Falcons’ rookie running back, was in the game but only played 11 offensive snaps. Robinson was diagnosed with an illness that limited his playing time. The league conducted an investigation and determined that the Falcons violated injury report guidelines by failing to announce the illness prior to kickoff.
Smith addressed the issue directly in a press conference on Friday, saying of the infraction ruling:
“What I will give the league a lot of credit for is that when you go through the injury report, there are a lot of things, and clearly we understood their point of view, but they also understood our point of view, which is why it wasn’t some contentious battle.” As you go through that, there’s an inquiry, and usually you have to respond with a letter. So, it’s not like you’re sitting in some court case; it wasn’t a lot of time spent. Just: Here’s how we interpreted it; here’s our intent; nothing was done to try to game anything like that. I understood their point of view, so that was a lesson learned. It was an interesting conversation, and there will undoubtedly be many more in the coming months. That’s where we kind of left it.
“Once again, we’ve learned our lesson, and we completely understand their position.” They seemed to understand where we were coming from. That’s exactly what happened.”
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