"These lame folks never played" - Colts' Darius Leonard has a scathing response to league's new taunting rules 

The Indianapolis Colts' two-time All-Pro LB Darius Leonard is sick and tired with the NFL’s overindulgence of fines for players. This year, the league has taken a look into enforcing more taunting calls. This has led to a multitude of contentious calls and general disapproval from players and fans. Players are still getting penalized (and fined) for just displaying emotion following plays.

In response to his teammate, Colts LB E.J. Speed, tweeting that he supposedly got fined for standing over an opponent, Leonard went off on the league for taking the pure joy out of the game of football. He too made the point that the people imposing these fines do not have the experience of playing football at an aggressive level.

The substantial enforcement of taunting penalties is made that much more fired up when occurrences such as what took place with the Chicago Bears come up. Bears LB Cassius Marsh was flagged for making contact with an official, although the official backed up into him. Players and officials are always in contention with one another, and this conflict will only escalate as the season goes on. Leonard is not the first player to show irritation over the NFL’s fines and he will not be the last. The NFL has historically had trouble with penalizing players over insignificant matters, and this season’s venture to limit the dispute around taunting opponents has created a new one.

Outrageous fine Leonard received from the NFL

The Colts Pro Bowl LB said the league fined him for “showing too much skin.” vs. Jets on Thursday Night Football. It is not clear what that means or what the NFL was referring to when it comes to his uniform. Leonard was stunned by the fine since he has worn “the same exact uniform the same way” for all four years of his NFL career.

In that game, Leonard made NFL history when he became the first player to record four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and two interceptions in a player’s first nine games to begin a season. At the moment, he is the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL. Leonard’s play is placing him in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.