Washington Redskins "safety" Brandon Meriweather had his suspension reduced by the NFL from two games down to one on Wednesday afternoon, but that isn’t the end of the story for Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
After hearing comments made by Chicago Bears Martellus Bennett (he expressed a desire to punch Meriweather in the face) and Brandon Marshall (he said that Meriweather should be kicked out of the league) in the days after the Redskins’ 45-41 victory over the Bears on Sunday, Hall was fed up with all the bad-mouthing of his defensive teammate.
Here’s what he had to say about Bennett’s comments:
“Martellus, I don’t know him personally, but he had a chance to say whatever he wanted to during the game, after the game – the kid didn’t open his mouth. (I have) no respect for a guy who wants to take a shot after the fact. If you want to take a shot, take a shot right there. No respect for a guy like that. At the end of the day, nobody is out there trying to purposely hurt somebody else.”
There are so many issues to be had with Hall’s comments that it’s tough to know where to start, so we’ll go with his repeated use of the word “shot,” especially the “take a shot right there” comment. Mr. Hall, you sound as though you might actually be referring to what Meriweather did repeatedly to the Bears on Sunday. Every time a receiver came over the middle of the field near him, all Meriweather did was “take a shot” at the guy’s head, and the NFL suspended him because of it.
In addition to that, Hall’s assertion that Meriweather isn’t trying to purposely hurt someone is laughable. He is talking about a player who has been fined for head shots at least four different times, and even knocked himself out of a game this season in trying to hit another player with a headshot. Despite getting a concussion on the play, and despite being fined for knocking another player out with a concussion in that same game, Hall’s insistence that Meriweather isn’t trying to hurt anyone might be the silliest possible comment that he can make.
Hall also said that Marshall’s comments were over the line. “They have a relationship beyond football,” he said. “I’m pretty sure B-Marsh, if he had to think about what he said, he probably wouldn’t have said it that way.”
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You’re right, DeAngelo. It would stand to reason that a player who just spent an afternoon having to worry about a reckless dope flying around trying to take his head off with a head-to-head collision should wait to say something about it until after he’s cooled down. The fact that Meriweather threw himself at Marshall’s neck was probably just some misunderstanding between friends, so really, Brandon was in the wrong here.
Obviously, a guy is going to stand up for his teammates when they are called out in the media, but the fact that Hall can say these types of things with a straight face means that he should be competing for Academy Awards rather than playing in the secondary for an NFL team. If he genuinely believes that Meriweather behaved like a friend when he tried to decapitate Marshall on Sunday, and if Hall really thinks that Meriweather isn’t out trying to hurt people when he plays, then surely someone has a bridge in London to sell him.
