NFL fines Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Smith for failing to disclose Bijan Robinson illness before Week 7
The NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons $75,000 and head coach Arthur Smith $25,000 for "violating the NFL Injury Report Policy" in regard to running back Bijan Robinson's status ahead of their Week 7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Robinson played 13 snaps against the Buccaneers in Week 7 and had only one carry for 3 yards. He was not on the Falcons' injury report before the game and questions arose about his limited usage.
During a halftime interview, Smith said that Robinson was “just not feeling all that great" and afterward said there was "nothing to it." Robinson himself said a headache that began Saturday night worsened into Sunday.
"I was feeling weird," Robinson said, via the team. "I woke up, just completely out of it. I tried to take medicine so I could be good for the game. But my head was hurting. Bad. I don't know what was going on. I tried to go in pregame, but then coach Smith said, 'We'll be all right. Let's get you right.'"
Smith addressed the situation on Friday:
"What I will give the league a lot of credit for is there are a lot of things, when you're going through the injury report, and clearly we understood their point of view, but they also understood our point of view, too, which is why it wasn't some contentious battle. As you go through that, just full transparency, there's an inquiry and usually you have to respond with a letter - so, it's not like it's some court case that you're sitting in - 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 lesson learned there. It was a good conversation, and there are probably a lot of conversations that are going to be had in the spring. That's kind of where we ended it.
"Again, lesson learned, and we completely understand their position. I think they understood where we were coming from. So, that's what ended up happening."
NFL teams need to be transparent about injuries per league policy or fines will come, as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin found out in 2019 when they offered an inaccurate report on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Earlier this season the Cincinnati Bengals were cleared during an investigation regarding the status of quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow grabbed his wrist in pain during the second quarter of a Nov. 16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. When he didn't return to the game, questions began to circulate about a video of Burrow getting off the team bus that showed a brace on his right hand. The issue was seemingly fueled as the Bengals posted and quickly deleted the video. Burrow eventually addressed questions about the brace, saying it's common for players to wear compression sleeves preventatively during travel.
The league reviewed medical records, studied practice footage and found no violations in its probe.
