The NFL Just Suspended Redskins Safety Brandon Meriweather for Two Games for Making a Helmet-to-Helmet Hit

Did Brandon Meriweather deserve a two-game suspension for making a helmet-to-helmet hit during the preseason?

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather has earned a bit of a reputation for making dirty hits on opposing players. He was suspended last October for a hit that he made on Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall during a game, shortly after he was given a $42,000 fine for a hit that he made on Packers running back Eddie Lacy. So it's not a shock to hear that the NFL just suspended Meriweather again for a helmet-to-helmet hit that he made on Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith during a preseason game on Saturday.

Here's the hit:

1.

Meriweather and his teammates don't like the fact that the NFL decided to suspend him yet again, though, especially since his latest hit wasn't as egregious as some of the hits that he made last season. After the game, Meriweather contended that he wasn't trying to hit Smith in the head.

"I tried to aim at his numbers," he said. "I kind of seen the pass go, and I went in and aimed low and I hit him with my shoulder. I did everything my coaches taught me to do, and I got the flag."

After the suspension was handed out, Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall agreed with him and sent the NFL a tweet on the subject.

"How do you adjust your target on a person who keeps changing there [sic] strike zone," he wrote on Twitter. "My guy aim low and the WR lowered his head."

And Washington long snapper Nick Sundberg had an entirely differently take on the matter. He took to Twitter to wonder why Meriweather received a two-game suspension for his hit—the same suspension that Ray Rice received for getting into a physical altercation with his wife during the offseason:

2.

Smith himself also said that he didn't think Meriweather deserved a suspension for the hit he made:

3.

Do you think that the NFL should have suspended Meriweather for his hit? We don't. But his reputation and his past transgressions definitely didn't help him in this particular situation.

[via ESPN]

Latest in Sports