After dumping a drink on fans during a 26-0 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper was fined a mere $300,000. The disgusting display of immaturity on the part of Tepper is only made worse by the slap on the wrist provided by the NFL.

This incident coinciding with a massive increase in the fines that players have been forced to pay makes it clear where the NFL’s priorities are. There is clear evidence of a double standard in the way the league treats its owners — who add little to the game, and the players — those who generate the billions of dollars the owners enjoy.

Cornell Law School’s website defines battery as, “an unlawful application of force directly or indirectly upon another person or their personal belongings, causing bodily injury or offensive contact.” I am in no way qualified to imply that this meets the grounds of battery. I do however find it alarming how close the actions of one of the 32 most powerful men in football are to criminal activity.

Tepper’s slap on the wrist, if it could even be called that, comes at the same time as the NFL is drastically increasing its fines against players in an effort to force players to play the game in a safer way. I am in no way opposed to this. Head-to-head contact in the NFL is incredibly dangerous and easily avoidable if players are properly trained. The legacy of legends such as Mike Webster and Junior Seau need to be honored with a sincere effort to lower the risk of CTE so that their sacrifice does not go in vain.

Egregious cases of targeting, where a player launches themselves headfirst at a target in an effort to tackle and deal damage, should be a point of emphasis in the NFL. However, what I’m not okay with is the league placing players under a microscope and watching game film to find hits where players dipped their heads ever so slightly before making contact despite the plays going unflagged on the field. If the refs did not notice it, it is probably not worthy of a fine.

Even worse, once the NFL has given a player a fine, they are continuously under a higher level of scrutiny than the average player. Few have received a worse punishment from this system than the Steelers’ Jaylen Warren.

Warren, a breakout undrafted free agent currently in his sophomore season, makes only $870,000 a year. While that is obviously a lot of money, it is well below the value he adds to the team and playing football, especially at the running back position, is not a long-term career.

In September, Warren was fined $48,556 for lowering his shoulder during a run to brace for contact. The following month, he was fined the same amount for lowering his helmet during a pass block.

Thanks to public outcry and the appeal process, the first fine was lowered to $10,000 and the second was dropped outright. However, that does not change what the NFL attempted to do. This money grab is especially sinister when you consider that money from fines go to the NFLPA’S Professional Athletes Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting former players with financial and medical issues. Essentially, the NFL is taking money out of the hands of current players, who on average will only play for three to four years, to cover the needs of the already broke and battered players while almost entirely shirking its own responsibility in the matter.

Warren’s $870,000 salary comes out to $48,333 a game. Given that his fines were $223 more than his weekly salary, Warren, one of the best players on his team, was effectively paying to play in the National Football League for violations one would only notice if they were looking for them.

Now let’s return to Tepper, who according to Forbes has a net worth of 20.6 billion dollars, nearly equivalent to the entire gross domestic product of Zimbabwe, a country with over 15 million residents. If the NFL was to fine Tepper with the same zeal they apply to Warren, they would be taking billions of dollars from him instead of taking what is essentially pocket change. I don’t think that would be appropriate, but I think something with at least seven digits is warranted in this case.

Keep in mind that one of these men was playing a game where all parties consented to the inherent violence. The other acted like a child because they knew there would be no consequences.

I’ll end with an analysis of the public apology Tepper released as a response to the incident. The apology begins, as all the most terrible ones do, with a post-hoc justification of his actions, “I am deeply passionate about this team and I regret my behavior on Sunday.” I think those two statements should be flipped, or the first omitted entirely. No one was questioning his passion. What people have an issue with is his inability to control himself.

He continued, “I should have let NFL stadium security handle any issues that arose. I respect the NFL’s code of conduct and accept the League’s discipline for my behavior.”

Perhaps Tepper should reroute this anger and point it at his own roster decisions. After trading away both Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore, two of the most potent offensive weapons in the NFL, rumors have circulated that Tepper went against the best wishes of the team’s at the time head coach, Frank Reich, and drafted Bryce Young instead of CJ Stroud in last year’s draft.

In an ironic twist, Young’s development has been severely hampered by a lack of solid weapons outside of the aging Adam Theilen.

Despite being the worst team in the NFL by a longshot this year, there will be no respite in this year’s draft for the Panthers, as they both traded their first-round pick in the upcoming draft as well as DJ Moore to the Bears in exchange for the number one with which they drafted Young. These decisions could ruin the ability of the organization he is so passionate about to compete for the rest of the 2020s.

Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com