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

FOXBORO, Mass. — The hit Jabrill Peppers laid on New York Jets running back Breece Hall during the Patriots’ Week 3 win didn’t draw a flag, but it did earn Peppers a hefty $43,709 fine.

Did the hard-hitting New England safety believe he deserved that punishment? Short answer: no. Long answer? Buckle up.

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NESN.com on Thursday asked Peppers for his reaction to the fine. He said he disagreed with it, then launched into a two-minute-long response detailing why he was not in the wrong on the play in question.

“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.

“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. We 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.”

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

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 30, 2023

Peppers plays with a physicality that would be more at home in the 1990s or early 2000s than it is in the modern NFL. He’s not a fan of the direction the league has taken in recent years, with more and more rule changes aimed at boosting offensive numbers.

“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.”

Whether that approach will cost him in this instance remains to be seen. Peppers was fined twice previously for what the NFL deemed illegal hits and said he successfully appealed both of those. His latest appeal is set for next Tuesday.

“I’ve got the appeal on (October) 10th,” he said. “I’m 2-0 right now, so hopefully we add to it.”