FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Falcons head coach Arthur Smith responded on Friday to reports that the Falcons have been fined for violating injury report rules.
According to multiple media outlets who were informed of the infraction by the NFL on Friday, the Falcons were fined $75,000 and Smith was personally fined $25,000 for violating the NFL Injury Report Policy prior to their Week 7 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Falcons rookie running back Bijan Robinson was active and participated in that game but played just 11 offensive snaps. It was revealed that Robinson was dealing with an illness that limited his play. The league investigated the matter and determined the Falcons violated injury report guidelines by not announcing the illness prior to kickoff.
Smith addressed the issue directly in a press conference Friday, and had this to say about the ruling of an infraction:
"What I will give the league a lot of credit for is there are a lot of things, when you're going through the injury report, and clearly we understood their point of view, but they also understood our point of view, too, which is why it wasn't some contentious battle. As you go through that, just full transparency, there's an inquiry and usually you have to respond with a letter - so, it's not like it's some court case that you're sitting in - it wasn't a lot of time spent, just: Here's how we interpreted it, here's our intent, nothing was done to try to game anything like that. I understood their point of view, so lesson learned there. It was a good conversation, and there are probably a lot of conversations that are going to be had in the spring. That's kind of where we ended it.
"Again, lesson learned, and we completely understand their position. I think they understood where we were coming from. So, that's what ended up happening."
