Los Angeles Chargers defensive tackle Teair Tart has been fined by the NFL for slapping Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce during their Week 1 opener in Sao Paulo, ESPN’s Kris Rhim reports.
The exact amount Tart has been fined has not yet been announced. The NFL announces fines from the previous week’s games on Saturdays. However, the fine for a first-time offender in striking a fellow player is $12,272. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty draws a $14,491 fine.
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The incident in question occurred midway through the third quarter of last Friday’s game in Brazil. Tart and Kelce were locked up on a running play. As the play reached its end, Kelce maintained a grip on Tart’s left elbow and then shoved him. Tart took issue with the shove and slapped Kelce in the facemask, drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
During the YouTube broadcast, rules analyst Terry McAulay explained that Tart was not ejected for striking Kelce because he did so with an open hand. League officials did not consider that disqualifying. Had Tart’s fist been closed or he threw a punch, he likely would have been tossed from the game.
Though Tart was not ejected from the game, the 15-yard penalty did hurt the Chargers, moving the Chiefs half the distance to the goal line for a 9-yard gain. On the next play, quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled for an 11-yard touchdown run.
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Tart made an impact later in the game, batting down two Mahomes passes during the fourth quarter. One of them was on a 2-point conversion attempt that would have tied the score at 20-20. The other was during the Chiefs’ final possession on first-and-goal from the Chargers’ 9-yard line. That led to Kansas City having to settle for a field goal in an eventual 27-21 defeat.
Talking to reporters on Monday following the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid questioned why Tart hadn’t been ejected and said he would address the matter with the league.
“I don’t understand that rule,” Reid said, via NFL.com. “I guess it’s open-hand, fist, whatever, I don’t know. I don’t know what their decision was on that. But he definitely got hit in the head pretty hard whether it was an open first or a closed fist.”
Tart receiving a fine will be little consolation if Reid and the Chiefs believe his batting down two passes resulted in a loss. Yet if his slap at Kelce was deemed egregious enough for a 15-yard penalty, should it also have warranted an ejection? Tart made sure to reference the incident with Kelce on Instagram after the game.
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The Chargers and Chiefs face each other again in Week 15 at Kansas City.