Brandon Meriweather is a two-time Pro Bowler, but the Redskins safety is now more known for being one of the league’s most reckless and dangerous defenders.
Meriweather, 30, was slapped with a two-game suspension after leveling Ravens receiver Torrey Smith with an illegal hit to the head on Saturday, marking the sixth time Meriweather has violated the league’s rules regarding hits on defenseless players and illegal use of the head.
Last season, Meriweather was docked $42,000 for a concussion-delivering helmet-to-helmet hit on Green Bay’s Eddie Lacy, then finally suspended for one game for a similar blow on Chicago’s Brandon Marshall.
At the time the unrepentant Meriweather said: “You’ve got to end people’s careers, you know? You’ve got to tear people’s ACLs and mess up people’s knees now. You can’t hit them high no more.”
The latest suspension was handed out by NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Troy Vincent, a longtime safety in the league.
“On the play in question, Meriweather delivered a forceful blow to the head and neck area of a defenseless receiver with no attempt to wrap up or make a conventional tackle of this player,” Vincent said in a release.
Meriweather, who has three days to appeal the ruling, didn’t agree with that assessment, following Saturday’s game, saying he tried to lower himself on the hit and shouldn’t have received a penalty.
“I tried to aim at his numbers,” Meriweather said. “I kind of seen the pass go, and I went in and aimed low, and I hit him with my shoulder. I did everything my coaches taught me to do, and I got the flag.”
Even if Meriweather’s hit was unanimously considered dirty, Redskins long snapper Nick Sundberg made a now-familiar point in mentioning the two-game suspension is the same length that Ravens running back Ray Rice received for hitting his future wife. (And then Ray Lewis?)