Dom DiSandro has been a fixture for the Eagles since 1999. He played a significant role in Sunday’s game against the 49ers.
DiSandro, officially the senior advisor to the general manager/chief security officer of the Eagles, interjected himself into a scrum that happened after 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw slammed Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith to the ground near the Philadelphia sideline.
Greenlaw threw a punch at the man known as “Big Dom.” It made contact, even if it was more of a forceful grazing. Regardless, it was enough to get Greenlaw ejected.
Big Dom was sent off the field, too. And that could just be the beginning. As one high-level executive with another team predicts to PFT, there will be a significant punishment imposed both on DiSandro and the Eagles by the league.
Team security officials are not in-game bouncers. Keeping the peace is the job of the officials. Non-players who insinuate themselves into the game action risk losing access to the game area.
Look at what the league did to the kid who gave Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill a phone for a celebration. His credential was revoked for the rest of the year. Why wouldn’t that be the same case for DiSandro? It should be no different for any non-player or non-head coach who tries to get involved in any kind of altercation.
Earlier this year, the NFL distributed a memo to all teams regarding fighting. Among other things, the memo says that “[m]ore significant accountability measures” might apply to teams whose players or non-players “join a fight already in progress.”
Again, the job of a team’s head of security does not include breaking up fights during a game. Absent swift and significant action by the league, other teams could be tempted to have non-players act as instigators, more than willing to trade an ejection of the non-player for an ejection of someone who actually is on the field.
