|
PHILADELPHIA -- Jason Peters expects to be fined, and that's just fine with him. The Eagles left tackle was ejected from Sunday's game against Washington for charging across the field and striking the Redskins' Chris Baker. Baker had just leveled Eagles quarterback Nick Foles with a blindside shot that earned Baker an ejection as well.  "It was wrong," Peters said. "I got kicked out of the game, which definitely hurt the team. We ended up winning, but any situation where your starter gets kicked out, I'm going to try to stay away from that." That said, Peters said he had no regrets. Baker said after the game that he would do the same thing again if the same situation arose. "And he's going to get the same result," Peters said. "I'd do the same thing if it happened again. The guy cheap-shotted my quarterback. And I'm going to protect him." Peters has become something of a hero in Philadelphia, where fans enjoy such displays of team spirit. He said he doesn't spend time online, so he hadn't seen any of the tributes that have blossomed in cyberspace. He spent Monday at home, so he hadn't heard anything from fans or teammates. "Our team is tight-knit," Peters said. "A guy trying to get a hit on the smallest guy out there -- Nick isn't too small, but that's unfair. I just took it upon me to go after the guy. They put that rule in. Foles wasn't trying to make the play. He was just going toward the sideline in a light trot, and he blindsided him." Peters does expect to hear from the commissioner's office, however. "I definitely got a fine coming," Peters said. Meanwhile, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told The Washington Post that Baker won't be suspended or fined for his hit. "Baker didn't do anything wrong with that hit," Vincent said. "When you look at the rule, he didn't do anything illegal. People can say it's a cheap shot and you can talk about whether it might fall under unsportsmanlike conduct. But when you know the rule and you look at the play, he didn't hit him in the head. He didn't hit him in the neck. We looked at it. I looked at it very closely. He's not going to be fined for that." Baker still could be fined for his role in the ensuing fight between the Redskins and Eagles players, although no player is facing a suspension, Vincent told the Post. "The fight part of it, that's easy," he said. "Those are non-debatable. You can look at it and tell for yourself. Those are just fines [rather than suspensions]." Redskins coach Jay Gruden told reporters he won't discipline any of his players involved in the melee. As for Baker's shoulder-slamming block on Foles, Gruden said he thought it looked worse on tape than it actually was. "I don't think Baker meant for it to be malicious," Gruden said, backing Baker's claim that he had no intent to do anything other than block an Eagle from interfering with a potential Redskins touchdown.
|
