Patriots’ Jabrill Peppers Has Strong Issue With Fine, Laments ‘Softer’ NFL

Jabrill Peppers has just received a big fine from the NFL. The NFL fined him for hitting New York Jets running back Breece Hall in the Week 3 game. Well, Peppers is not happy about his $43,709 fine.

Here's the hit that got Jabrill Peppers fined $43,709. pic.twitter.com/XjQPVXurmA

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 30, 2023

If you ask the Patriots safety, he will say he does not deserve this fine. Peppers talked to NESN about the whole situation and yes, he definitely disagrees with the decision the league made.

The NFL fined Peppers

Peppers delivered a long response and insists that he didn’t do a bad call in the play.

“I don’t think I deserved that one,” Peppers said. “I play fast. I make split-second decisions. Sometimes, things look a little more egregious than I want them to. It’s football; guys are falling, they get tripped up. You shoot your angle for one target, and then somebody might trip his leg up, and now it’s a little lower.

“But that one — I don’t think I deserved that one. You can clearly see me making a conscious effort to put my shoulder in there, and I put my arm like this as a kind of brace. I don’t think if I was trying to use my helmet, I would have did that. … When I shot my shot, he was still upright. I think (Kyle Dugger) came and clipped his foot, then he lowered, but I still think I got him on the shoulder. I think his helmet kind of hit my helmet as he was falling forward.

“And it’s like, it’s Breece Hall. He was averaging 10 yards a carry before we played those guys. Of course I’m going to come in there and make sure he gets on the ground. I’m not trying to intentionally hurt guys or nothing like that, but at the end of the day, it’s football. I do want you to feel me when I hit you, but I’m not trying to stop you from feeding your family or playing the game that you love.”

Peppers doesn’t like the new rules

“But the game ain’t been the same since the 1978 rule changes, man, because they don’t want to see people play good defense. I get some of the stuff was a little wild. We used to have the ‘Jacked Up’ series growing up, showing guys getting CTE and things like that. But it’s still football, man. We know what we signed up for. Know what we’ve got to do on Sundays, and we know the possibilities of what can happen.

“But if a guy is clearly trying to make a conscious effort to lead with his shoulder and incidental helmet-to-helmet contact happens, I don’t think you should be fined for that. They didn’t throw the flag, so obviously it didn’t look crazy to the officials. Because they’re told to throw the flag if it looks bad, you know what I mean? But you can clearly see me making a conscious effort to — you know.”

Jabrill Peppers was really honest about the fine

Peppers’ performance is really physical and his style may be more fitting for the old NFL. He doesn’t like the way the NFL changes the rules every year.

“Each year, I feel like the game gets softer,” Peppers told NESN.com. “They add new rules and regulations to theoretically how the defense is supposed to play. You can’t really land on the quarterback anymore, can’t hit him too hard. Like, back in the day, guys knew what can happen if you were a quarterback, and they still wanted to play quarterback. Nowadays, you can play ’til you’re 50 with these new rules, you know what I mean? “But I only know one speed, man, so I’m not going to slow down. I guess I’ve got to make more of a conscious effort, but I only know one speed. So, it is what it is.”