Lions Facing Potential NFL Punishment Over J.J. McCarthy Incident

McCarthy was involved in a contentious incident in Sunday’s victory. The 22-year-old was on the receiving end of a hard tackle from Lions linebacker Jack Campbell, who was penalized for the hit.

With the Vikings at 1st-and-10 in their own 26-yard line, McCarthy found tight end T.J. Hockenson for a four-yard pass. McCarthy, however, was tackled by Campbell right as the former released his pass. Campbell’s hit was deemed excessive, and the Detroit LB was flagged for a Roughing the Passer penalty.

According to the NFL rulebook, a game official can deem any physical act against a player who is in a passing posture as a personal foul if the said act is “unwarranted by the circumstances.” This was the case for Campbell’s tackle, and it led to an automatic 15-yard penalty.

Roughing the Passer penalties are automatically reviewed by the league for potential punishment. At this point, Campbell could be looking for a $17,389 fine for his hit on McCarthy. A second offense will result in a significantly higher fine of $23,186. The NFL will announce its decision on the Lions LB’s potential punishment in the weekly gameday accountability update, which is released every Saturday.

The Fox Sports broadcast team did not exactly agree with the penalty. NFL legend Tom Brady was on the call for the game, and he made his feelings about the incident abundantly clear.

“The challenge I don’t like about it is you take such a good defensive play and a bad offensive play by not picking up the pressure, and you reward the offense 15 yards,” Brady said.

McCarthy and the Vikings improved to 4-4 after Sunday’s win. They will be back in action on Sunday in a home game against the 3-5 Baltimore Ravens. Kickoff from U.S. Bank Stadium is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET.