10 Times NFL Players Broke The League's Rules

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s the importance of rules. While not all rules are created equal, even a football game would get pretty old pretty quickly if anyone could do whatever they wanted. Sometimes, a player just has to cut loose and break a few rules. Most times, those players are setting themselves up for a hefty fine.

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Most NFL fans can probably recall at least one high-profile rule break from the last few years, but there have been others that have flown under the radar. Some rules are so strange most people won’t be able to help but laugh, while others show a much darker side of those that play in the NFL.

10 Tom Brady - Deflategate

Despite being the golden boy of the NFL, even Tom Brady has been guilty of breaking the rules at times throughout his career. In fact, Brady has been involved in some of the most high-profile scandals when it comes to NFL rules.

One of the biggest issues that will forever be mentioned regarding his career is Deflategate. The allegation was that Brady had ordered deflated footballs to be used in an AFC Championship game. The team was arguably punished more than Brady, but he still wound up serving a four-game suspension for the incident.

9 Odell Beckham Jr. - Wearing A Watch

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for a player to wind up with a punishment for breaking the rules, and then there are some weird ones. Odell Beckham Jr. once found himself at odds with NFL rules for wearing a watch.

That may sound strange, because who would care if a player wanted to know the time during a game, but the league has rules against hard objects being worn on the field. Considering the punishment was a simple fine, and Odell was flashing multi-million dollar watches, he probably had no issue taking the fines.

8 Ndamukong Suh - Green Bay Stomp

While Ndamukong Suh can be an incredibly nice guy off of the field, absolutely no one would ever want to bump into him on the field. He found himself suspended for a seriously violent display after stomping Evan Smith.

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That wasn’t the only time Suh ended up stomping a Green Bay player either. He also faced some serious backlash after stomping the leg of Aaron Rodgers. Each instance resulted in at least one game missed. Never, ever get Ndamukong Suh angry, that is unless someone feels like they want to get stomped for some reason.

7 Dalvin Cook - Throwing A Ball At Fans

A form of celebration that a lot of players engage in is throwing the ball into the crowd after a touchdown. The issue here is that it’s against the rules to chuck something into the stands. Handing a fan a ball is one thing, but potentially nailing someone in the face is something completely different.

Many players have been punished for doing this over the years, but once again, since it’s just a simple and rather small fine (when comparing the fine to what NFL players can make), so most players don’t seem to care.

6 Antonio Brown - Breaking Covid Policy

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It’s probably fair to say that Antonio Brown is one of the more polarizing figures in NFL history. While there are plenty of little instances that could be highlighted for a list like this (and many others), a more relevant issue surrounded the global pandemic.

Brown along with other players were just a few that found themselves suspended for breaching the league's policies surrounding Covid. Most people won’t find it all that surprising that Brown was one of the many people who faced some repercussions during the height of the NFL Covid struggles.

5 Randy Moss - 'Mooning' The Fans

There is a forever ongoing debate about touchdown celebrations in the NFL. Some people think that players should have every right to celebrate and boast a bit, while others believe respect should be at the forefront of the game that they love.

Regardless of that, some players still opt to celebrate on their big plays. One moment that became infamous was when Randy Moss decided to celebrate by simulating the process of mooning the Green Bay crowd. Some people loved it, some people hated it, and Moss was fined for the rule break.

4 Ricky Williams - Substance-Abuse Policy Violations

Ricky Williams is an interesting person to look at when examining NFL players who have broken the rules. There is a long list of players who have taken suspensions for testing positive for various substances, but for many, Williams was one case that never needed to happen.

Williams was suspended a handful of times by the NFL for substance-abuse policy violations. That doesn’t sound bad, but Williams missed as much as two entire seasons, and this was a player who was viewed as potentially being the next big thing.

3 Michael Vick - Dog Fighting

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As far as the list of reasons why players have been suspended goes, Michael Vick might just have one of the strongest. At one point, his entire career came to a screeching halt after he ended up pleading guilty to having something to do with a dog fighting ring.

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The entire situation was obviously as against NFL policy as it was the law, resulting in Vick earning some prison time. He ended up returning to the league and showing that he never lost his skill on the field when he joined the Eagles.

2 Ben Roethlisberger - Serious Personal Conduct Allegations

Fans of the NFL will probably remember the mess of allegations Ben Roethlisberger found himself fighting over a decade ago. While the details of the allegations aren’t exactly the kind of thing anyone needs to read, it’s safe to say that the NFL deemed there had been a personal conduct infraction.

He ended up getting a six-game suspension, a punishment that was later shortened, but regardless, that is pretty serious for a quarterback of his stature. The NFL was in a hard place, so their decision at least makes some sense in this instance.

1 Terrell Owens - Tweeting Right Before Gametime

Believe it or not, Terrell Owens has gotten in trouble for something as simple as tweeting. It probably sounds odd to most people, but the NFL does have a social media policy in place to keep those involved with a game from tweeting roughly over an hour before kick-off.

The fact that Terrell Owens felt the need to tweet and deal with any kind of repercussion is almost funny to think about. Plus, the thought that someone could be punished for something so minor is odd, but whatever the NFL wants, the NFL gets.

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