More than a month ago, Buffalo Bills right tackle Cody Ford was fined more than $28,000 for his illegal peel-back block against the Houston Texans—a penalty that may or may not have cost the team a playoff victory in overtime. Today on Twitter, Ford shared the news that the fine had been lowered by a considerable margin.
“My fine was reduced to just over [$4000],” tweeted Ford who added, “I still believe I did nothing wrong on that play.”
The penalty itself was debated in the immediate aftermath of the game, as former Vice President of NFL officiating and current FOX NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira questioned the validity of the call on Twitter. In his weekly penalty recap, our own Jeff Kantrowski analyzed the play and deemed the penalty call to be correct by the letter of the law (but probably not by the intent).
In the aftermath, Bills fans set up a Go Fund Me account to pay the fine, raising $3870. Ironically, it wouldn’t even be enough to pay the newly-reduced fine. Ford said the money was donated to charity.
Now Ford can actually say he made money playing in an NFL playoff game. His game check was for $28,000, the original fine was $75 more than that.