New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan is taking issue with the league after he was fined $50,000 for allegedly faking an injury during last Monday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
According to ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, Jordan has denied that claim and says that said he has a legitimate injury that resulted in an MRI last Tuesday, explaining that he initially thought he injured his ankle, but MRIs showed it was actually a midfoot sprain.
Jordan says that league is questioning his integrity.
“I feel like my name’s low-key been slandered. Like I haven’t played with more or less,” he said. “And even then, I went out, went to the tent, got taped up … went back to the playing field and finished the game.”
“In terms of how I play this game and how hard I play this game, I was like ‘Yo, if this was a civil lawsuit, I’d countersue for triple the amount.’ The amount of work that I’ve put in to be a part of the league, the amount of honor I take in playing this game, yeah, that’s why I also laugh at this. … You know my track record, you know I’ll do everything I can to try to be on the field and try to be part of the team.”
“The fact that I have to go through an appeal is almost funny in itself,” Jordan said. “If anything, the league should be like ‘Hey, call in and be like there was an actual [injury] and that’s the end of it,’ but apparently, there’s almost a half million dollars’ worth of fines, so you have to go through an appeal process.”
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Saints were fined $350,000, coach Dennis Allen $100,000, co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen $50,000 and Jordan $50,000 for their roles in the fourth-quarter delay
“I will say that I don’t think our team did anything wrong,” Allen said.
“I was like, fine for what?” Jordan asked. “You hit a quarterback too hard, you can catch a fine. I was like, ‘Dang, the play I did get hurt, I did grab Tom Brady. I didn’t put a pillow down before I hit the ground, that could’ve been a fine there.’ But no, it’s because I got hurt and was trying to walk off the field and my team was doing the right thing by me, by making sure it wasn’t anything more than it was.”
Jordan also called on the league to do the same for quarterbacks.
“If we’re going to curtail something, can we curtail like, you know, quarterbacks looking for flags after they get hit?” he said. “It’s a part of the game. But in terms of somebody going down, you can’t tell me that if somebody has a soft tissue injury, whether it be a cramp, or a hamstring pull, or whatever it is, how does someone tell you that it’s not what you’re feeling? You can’t prove that. And for me, mine is actually something that you can prove. I had a fat foot for a week.”
