As expected, Jets receiver Randall Cobb will be paying a pretty penny for his blindside block of Giants defensive back Bobby McCain last Saturday night.
Many pretty pennies, to be exact.
Via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com, Cobb was fined $13,889 for the hit.
The moment contributed to the back-and-forth between Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Giants defensive lineman Jihad Ward, who took exception to the hit and the jovial reaction to it by the Jets. Ward also objected to the characterization of the situation from Hard Knocks.
But for Hard Knocks, the entertaining Rodgers-Ward angle likely wouldn’t be known. So there’s at least one reason to be glad the Jets agreed (involuntarily) to do Hard Knocks.
The Cobb hit was legal for years. As the NFL has become more sensitive to player health and safety, tactics that used to require players to keep their head on a proverbial swivel have been removed from the rulebook.