Early in the fourth quarter of the New England Patriots' 10-7 loss to the New York Giants, rookie wide receiver Demario Douglas was sent out to return a punt. During the return, Giants linebacker Cam Brown raised his arm and essentially clotheslined Douglas at neck level.
Douglas hit the ground hard and was ruled out for the rest of the game with a head injury. He later revealed that he didn't suffer a concussion on the play.
Douglas' teammates were quick to jump to his defense, with safety Jabrill Peppers and receiver DeVante Parker commenting on the hit and no-call in their postgame press conferences.
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"It's just crazy because they preach all of this player safety stuff, but then that doesn't get flagged," Peppers said. "But I've been fined maybe two or three times for clean hits, so that pissed me off, too. They even looked up at the Jumbotron and saw it, and still no flag, but you can't say anything about the refs in this league, so it is what it is, but to me that's a joke."
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Peppers was fined $43,709 in the Patriots' 15-10 win over the New York Jets in Week 3 for unnecessary roughness. The fine was given to the safety following the game after no flag was thrown on the play in real-time.
"You can't say you care about player safety and not flag that play," Peppers added.
Parker, who has missed his fair share of games due to being in the concussion protocol, also chimed in on the hit.
"That’s some bull[expletive]. The refs need to do something about that, because that’s some bull[expletive],” Parker said. "They need to either throw a flag or something. He better get fined or something. This ain’t no [expletive] wrestling. They [the refs] need to get on their mother-[expletive] job. Yeah, I’m cussing. I don’t care. It pissed me off."
With another frustrating loss coming at the hands of a missed 35-yard field goal attempt, the Patriots now sit at 2-9. With most fans now shifting their positivity toward hoping New England can land a good draft pick, the Patriots will resume action next Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against the Los Angeles Chargers.
