T.O. was fined $35,000 by the NFL on Monday for spitting in the face of Atlanta cornerback DeAngelo Hall during Saturday night’s Cowboys-Falcons game. Owens, however, told Westwood One radio that he has filed an appeal of the fine.
Although his fine was more than twice as much as the last fine for spitting, the flamboyant receiver avoided a suspension.
Owens wasn’t ejected because officials didn’t see it.
Hall had called for the NFL to suspend Owens.
“I think, for what he did, he deserves more than a fine,” Hall said on Sunday. “The guy has all the money in the world. He’s making $10 million or whatever this year. So what’s a fine going to mean to him, really? What he did, it was [vulgar], you know? But he’s a great player, a great competitor, and what would hurt him a lot more than a fine is making him sit. That would get his attention. And that’s what I think the league should do. They need to do something pretty [severe], because there’s something wrong with him, and he just can’t get away with this kind of stuff.”
Hall was adamant on Sunday that Owens offered no apology.
When told on Monday that Owens was not suspended, Hall responded, “It’s over, it’s done. But did T.O. even know he spat at Hall?
At first, he said he did, telling the NFL Network after the game: “I got frustrated and I apologize for that. It was a situation where he kept bugging me and getting in my face.”
But yesterday (Monday), he insisted it was an accident.
“When it happened, we were jawing in each other’s face, so it wasn’t anything intentional,” Owens said. “I didn’t intentionally spit in his face. He’s trying to make it seem like more than what it was by saying I hauled off and spit in his face. I feel like if I spit in his face … somebody would’ve seen it.”
