Safety Damontae Kazee has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the regular season and any potential
postseason games after repeatedly violating regulations designed to safeguard players’ health and safety, the NFL
announced Monday.
During the second quarter of Pittsburgh’s Week 15 road defeat to the Indianapolis Colts, Kazee flung himself at
Michael Pittman Jr., who was diving to make a grab.
Kazee was suspended by Jon Runyan, NFL Vice President of Football Operations, for violating a rule that states it’s a
foul if a player “forcibly hits the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or
shoulder, even if the initial contact is lower than the player’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player
also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him.”
In a letter to Kazee, Runyan said: “When players violate the rules intended to protect player safety on a repeated
basis, and particularly when the violations carry with them a significant risk of injury to an opposing player, it is
appropriate to impose substantially greater penalties.”
Kazee will be suspended for the Steelers’ remaining regular-season games against the Bengals, Seahawks, and
Ravens.
In response to Kazee’s punishment, seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady stated that the Steelers safety was not
solely responsible for the incident, meaning that Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew was partly to blame.
“Nobody loves to watch players get wounded. But hard hits happen,” he responded on Instagram. “Quarterbacks
should not toss the ball in situations where their teammates are vulnerable to such blows.
