Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Fine me, please
by Bryce Martin

Keith Bulluck of the Titans tosses the football into the stands each time he makes an interception and the play has ended. That is an automatic fine from the NFL.

Bulluck always boasts that he doesn't care, he's always going to do it anyway.

Of course, he is. It's to his advantage. He needs charity write-offs to help keep money from his salary that would otherwise go to Uncle Sam.

In fact, many of the so-called NFL "bad boys" have been using this ploy for years.

Player fines collected by the league have been used to support retired player programs, including the NFL Player Care Foundation and NFLPA Players Assistance Trust, disaster relief programs and and other charities.

The fined player chalks it up as a donation to charity. Thus, he gets his tax deduction that he was going to need to discharge in some form anyway.

It surely beats having to get up early and spend all day some Saturday in the off-season showing a bunch of eight-year-old campers how to run a slant pattern all in the name of some caring charity.

I keep forgetting my Hemingway tip:
"The weather it was fine." Isn't that a line from "Oh, Susanna" by Foster?

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