Bad Rapp? Bills' Safety Fined for Davante Adams Hit
Per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, Buffalo Bills defender Taylor Rapp has been hit with a $9,611 fine for an act of unnecessary roughness in last Sunday's win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The fine is just under one percent of Rapp's $1.08 million salary and serves as the first monetary fine of his career.
Rapp, a reserve defender and former Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl-winning safety working through his first season in Western New York, was among the Buffalo backups in the game as the team was putting the finishing touches on a 38-10 victory. The incident occurred when the Raiders, trying to beautify a brutal effort with a late score, tried throwing deep to Davante Adams.
Their attempt fell incomplete thanks to Cam Lewis' pass breakup but Rapp launched himself into Adams with a helmet-to-helmet hit that drew a 15-yard personal foul call. Rapp would redeem himself by recovering a Zamir White fumble two plays later, one that allowed Buffalo to get the ball back and run out the clock.
Rapp's penalties are likely of little consolation to Adams, who was not pleased with the way he was playing during the game's final stages.
"Was it unnecessary? Completely, obviously," Adams, who was placed in concussion protocol, said as his Raiders prepped for a Sunday night showdown against Pittsburgh, per Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. "But certain players play a certain way too. Some people, out of control, they fly around, they don't really have much true purpose out there. I mean, playing a half field on one side, you run over and hit somebody in the head on the other side of the field."
"That's the kind of stuff that contributes to you not being on the field. That's why you're in when you're blowing us out by 25 at the end of the game. Maybe if that man learns how to play the game the right way, he'll see the field. Until then, he'll have to go and live off of plays like that, I guess."
Rapp and the Bills (2-0) will return to action on Sunday when they face the Washington Commanders in Landover (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
