The NFL found something fishy with how the Miami Dolphins handled their injury report prior to their game against the Chicago Bears, levying fines (yes, plural) for their actions:
The NFL confirms that the #Dolphins have been fined $30,000 and coach Adam Gase was fined $15,000 for violating the NFL Injury Report Policy in advance of the club’s October 14 game vs the #Bears.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 7, 2018
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reports the NFL fined the Dolphins $30,000 and Adam Gase $15,000 for violating the league’s injury report policy before their game against the Chicago Bears on October 14. And frankly, that seems like a bit light considering how harsh the NFL can be when handing out punishment.
The issue here stems from the Dolphins not downgrading quarterback Ryan Tannehill on the injury report in a timely or accurate manner.
If you’ll recall, the first-place Bears were coming off their bye to play the Dolphins and things were going as they normally would in the days leading up to game day. And then Tannehill – Miami’s starting quarterback – popped up on a late-week injury report as limited in practice and declared as questionable to play because of a right shoulder issue. Here is a timeline for how Tannehill’s week went: Full participant, limited, questionable, and eventually inactive for the Dolphins’ Week 5 game against the Bears. So where’s the NFL’s beef in all this?
The hang-up here is that the Dolphins skipped a step by never downgrading Tannehill’s status to doubtful once he was limited. And evidently, the NFL doesn’t take too kindly to teams fudging the injury report – even if it’s in the most low-key ways.
Now that we’ve gotten that straightened out, this news totally strikes the loss from the Bears’ record … right?