Twitter reveal’s NFL’s hypocrisy after fining Clyde Edwards-Helaire

The National Football League has made taunting a priority this season so far for officials, asking them to put the clamps down on players who are caught taunting other players on the field. We assume it’s in the name of sportsmanship or something else vague enough to allow for random flags to be thrown here and there. For Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the willy-nilly nature of the NFL’s emphasis has come at a steep price.

Per NFL reporter Tom Pelissero, Edwards-Helaire was fined over $10,000 for taunting a member of the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11 as he scored a touchdown int he first half of the game. At this point, it’s salt in the wound for the Kansas City Chiefs running back since the original flag/penalty was already a laughable offense.

If you missed the action, the Chiefs beat the Cowboys by a final score 19-9 with Edwards-Helaire’s touchdown serving as the opening salvo. As CEH ran it in, he pointed to the encroaching defender and drew a flag. He pointed. That was it.

If you missed the play, here’s how it went down:

By the same token, the league decided not to fine Cameron Heyward of the Pittsburgh Steelers at all for this punch on Justin Herbert, a play that also happened in the same week.

So somehow it’s okay to throw a punch (and then say you never meant it that way) but not to point at a guy and the difference, even with some time to consider it and review properly, is $10,000.

If that sounds ridiculous, it is. It’s also why Twitter was quick to expose the league’s hypocrisy on the matter and come to the defense of Edwards-Helaire. Here’s a sampling of what some people were saying.

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t just Chiefs fans who were frustrated. Analysts were perplexed as well.

We couldn’t agree more. It’s almost unbelievable how all of this has turned out even when the league has had all week to look at the evidence and weigh the actions of everyone around the league on Sunday. How is Clyde’s pointing deemed worse than so many other things—Heyward’s punch included?