Kareem Jackson will continue to play his physical "style of ball" but may adjust his aim next time to avoid paying the league a chunk of his paycheck.
Jackson found out about the $42,000 fine, the largest he has ever been slapped with, through a phone call with his agent. Jackson's fourth-quarter hit on Titans receiver Kendall Wright earned him a 10-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness as well as a hefty bill.
"I have to appeal it," Jackson said after practice on Wednesday. "It is what it is. I don't think there is much I can do about it now but appeal it. I don't like it. I'm just playing ball and the way the rules are now, there is not much you can do in situations like that on bang-bang plays."
While he has no intention of landing a season-ending injury, Jackson says it is a fine line between a legal hit and a dirty one.
It's tough when you're going in to tackle," Jackson said. "Of course we don't want to blow guys knees out and have them out for the rest of the season. If you go low on them, you've got guys saying that it's a dirty play and we're trying to hurt people. I don't understand. You can blow a guy's knee out or go high and he can get up and play the rest of the game, rest of the season. It's hard, but, at the same time, we're defensive players and we get paid to be physical out there, that's our job."
Regardless of the outcome of his appeal, he is not going to let it affect his game other than aiming lower in the future.
"To be honest with you, when I'm out there playing, I'm not thinking about any fines," Jackson. "I'm not. Like I said, that's my style of play. I pride myself on being physical out there. I want to let receivers know that I'm out there. I'm going to be out here on this corner and every time you come out here, you're going to feel it. That's the problem I set for them for the games to come this week. That's how I play the game, so I'm going to continue to be physical from here on out and hopefully I'll just have to aim a little lower, but I'm going to continue to play how I play."
*
Twitter.com/DeepSlant*
