New England Patriots tight end Austin Hooper was flagged for a facemask against the Carolina Panthers midway through the second quarter back in Week 4. Although it wasn’t a reviewable play, it was obvious that Hooper’s interaction with the face was unintentional and innocent to say the least.
The penalty happened on a six-yard run by rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson to place the Patriots at the Panthers’ four-yard line. Instead, the penalty pulled them back to the 24-yard line to redo the first down play.
However, ahead of Week 5, it was announced that the league fined Hooper for unnecessary roughness, resulting in an $11,593 hit for the veteran Patriot. The in-game penalty is one thing, but then upgrading it to an unnecessary roughness and tacking on the minimum amount for a fine of that nature call is ridiculous.
In the moments after the penalty, ESPN’s Patriots insider Mike Reiss said that he thought the 15-yard penalty and the fine on top of it were excessive, with no evidence of intent. Finally, on Thursday, over two weeks after the penalty happened, Hooper said that the fine was rescinded, via Reiss.
NFL Admits Patriots TE Austin Hooper's Fine was a Mistake
Hooper is not a player who is flagged often. In his two years with the Patriots, he has only been called for two penalties across 879 snaps as of Week 7, with both instances occurring this season.
Although the Patriots went on to win the game over the Panthers to the tune of a 29-point blowout, the larger league-wide problem still remains in that the officiating continues to get worse while impacting games.
This isn’t made to attack the officials. I understand that they have a challenging job, and the narrative has always been that they’re not full-time employees, but an NFL official still makes a larger salary than most professions, and it’s the highest-paying in the NFL out of the four major professional sports.
When the officials make these judgment calls, it starts to impact a player’s livelihood in the sense of the hefty fines that are attached to the penalty. It can also take away from a great play, which we saw in the Patriots' Week 6 game against the New Orleans Saints when a poor pass interference call wiped out a touchdown by wideout DeMario Douglas.
It’s happening each week, in every game. It’s something that the league truly needs to figure out moving forward. It’s nice to see that Hooper’s fine was rescinded, but it shouldn’t even have reached that point in the first place.