Here's the thing about that fine, which was issued by Merton Hanks, the league's senior manager of compliance: In truth, the two rookies did violate the league's celebration rule because "two or more players cannot engage in prolonged, excessive, premeditated or choreographed celebrations."
The intent of the rule was to reduce taunting that sometimes led to more physical altercations.
Sometimes, however, common sense needs to prevail. Jackson and Demps were not taunting the Redskins' players. There wasn't a Redskins player within 10 yards of the two. They had long given up the chase of Jackson, possibly because flags were thrown on the play leading them to believe the touchdown would be called back anyway. Instead, the flags were picked up and the play was ruled a touchdown.
All Jackson and Demps were doing was having fun and isn't the game supposed to be fun?
Another thing: If the celebration was worthy of such a lofty fine, then shouldn't there have been a penalty? Why doesn't Goodell issue a statement saying the officiating crew clearly missed this egregious act?
In this case, referee Gene Steratore's crew made the right call.
The other outrageous news from the league office was that Eagles linebacker Tank Daniels had been fined $5,000 for unnecessary roughness during a punt return by the Redskins' Antwaan Randle El. That fine was ruled upon by Gene Washington, the director of football operations.
There's no way you can watch the videotape and determine that Daniels deserves any kind of fine, especially when you consider that Washington also watched the helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh's Orpheus Roye that caused the Eagles' Tony Hunt to leave the game with a concussion a few weeks ago and decided that wasn't fine worthy.
That's not to say Roye intended to hurt Hunt because he didn't. But Daniels didn't intend to ride Randle El out of bounds either. It just happened.
Replay rant
NFL football is better than big-time college football for a lot of reasons.
First, the college game uses an acronym-based system to crown its champion. Second, is that the games take forever to play because the clock stops after every first down and you have two major flaws right there.
One thing that the NCAA does better than the NFL, however, is the replay system.
Instead of forcing teams to challenge calls on the field by having the head coach throw a red flag, the NCAA has a replay official in the press box who can stop play by alerting the referee that something should be reviewed.
Too often NFL coaches in the press box rely on television replays that sometimes are late in coming or not shown at all. Teams hurry to the line of scrimmage to try to get the next play off before the opponent can figure out whether or not to challenge the play and that's just ridiculous.
The object should be to get every reviewable call right and that goal is accomplished in a much better fashion at the college level.
Lions win, lions win
The dim-witted Detroit Lions finally won something last week. No, of course, it wasn't a game. Those kinds of victories are few and far between. The Lions won an arbitration case that will force former first-round pick Charles Rogers to repay them $8.5 million of the $14.2 million in bonus money the team gave him after selecting him with the second overall pick in the 2003 draft.
Rogers, the first of four first-round wide receivers taken by former Lions GM Matt Millen in a five-year span, played just three seasons and had one more touchdown catch (4) than substance abuse violations (3). The third substance abuse infraction resulted in his 2005 suspension and, despite numerous tryouts with different NFL teams, Rogers has not played in the league since the Lions released him in 2006.
Here's hoping Rogers didn't invest that $8.5 million in the stock market or he could have a really difficult time getting the money back to the Lions.
Schedule strength
The Eagles were supposed to get a slight break this season in the schedule because they get to play two more last-place teams from a year ago than the other three teams in the NFC East.
However, one of those last-place teams - the Chicago Bears - is in first and has already beaten the Eagles.
So far, the Eagles' schedule has been one of the toughest in the NFL. The combined record of their five opponents is 15-9. Only the Washington Redskins (16-8) in the NFC and Cincinnati Bengals (16-6) and Kansas City Chiefs (15-8) in the AFC have played tougher schedules after five weeks.
The combined record of Dallas' first five opponents is 9-15 and the combined record of the New York Giants' first four opponents is 5-13.
Poster child
If the cursed Cleveland Browns are looking for a poster child, then tight end Kellen Winslow is their man.
The team that signed all-pro center LeCharles Bentley to $12.5 million in guaranteed money in 2006, then lost him forever to a knee injury at the start of his first training camp has had all kinds of misfortune since re-entering the league in 1999.
Winslow, after four operations on his right knee and a near fatal motorcycle crash in 2005, finally became the Pro Bowl player the Browns expected him to be last season. And now he's in the hospital with an undisclosed illness. It really doesn't seem fair.
Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at 215-854-2577 or bbrookover@phillynews.com.
