Danny Amendola thought his hit on Kansas City Chiefs special teamer Jamell Fleming was clean, but the receiving party wasn’t so sure.
The New England Patriots wide receiver was flagged 2 yards for unnecessary roughness — the play happened on the Patriots’ 4-yard line — after laying a vicious hit on Fleming on a second-quarter punt return in New England’s 27-20 AFC Divisional Playoff win. Amendola said he’d appeal any suspension the NFL might give him, but Fleming thinks he deserves it.
“Of course he knows he stuck me and everything,” Fleming said after the game Saturday, per The Boston Globe. “And the crowd knows it, but there’s nothing I can do about it. We have one of the best pooch-area punt teams, of course, and I find the ball very good.
“Of course that was calculated. That wasn’t no fluke play. Everybody knows that, your own fans know that. So that’s how you know it’s bad.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in a conference call Sunday that he believed the play was legal. Regardless, it should be interesting to see what the NFL decides to do, especially after suspending Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict three games for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Thumbnail photo via Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports Images
