FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Shaun Ellis said his snow throw was "all in fun," but the NFL wasn't amused.
Ellis, who was fined an undisclosed amount by the Jets after his arrest on marijuana charges several weeks ago, was fined $10,000 yesterday for "tossing a large snow clump in the direction of fans," the league said in a statement.
As the Jets exited Qwest Field after Sunday's loss to the Seahawks, they were pelted with snowballs by fans. Ellis, one of the last to leave the field, stopped and grabbed a large chunk of snow from an embankment in the corner of one end zone. He then walked toward the stands and heaved it with both hands at a fan who was waving what seemed to be a sign at him.
Ellis said yesterday that the reaction wasn't inspired by anger. "It was all in fun," he said. "Coming off [the field], everybody was throwing snowballs, so it was kind of like a little battlefield out there, so to speak. It was all in fun just going to the locker room."
As implausible as Ellis' explanation seemed, a closer look at the video showed the fans didn't take it personally. Surprised laughter can be heard, and the fan "hit" with the snow chunk - he caught most of it - clearly can be seen holding up the piece of precipitation like the Lombardi Trophy before putting it under his arm and waving.
Regardless, according to a league spokesman, players are explicitly warned about contact of any kind with fans.
"Players are notified prior to each season that any contact with fans that potentially presents crowd-control issues and risk of injury is prohibited," the spokesman said. "In addition, players are informed that they must not confront fans at any time on game day and must leave those types of issues to security personnel."
Which is where Jets coach Eric Mangini had a problem with Sunday's events.
"The situation in the stadium in general was not a very safe situation for anybody involved," Mangini said. "That doesn't justify us getting involved in it, on the flip side of that. [Ellis] understands that. We thought that there could have been more done to prevent what was happening in terms of the safety from snowballs coming down. That still doesn't justify us getting involved in any context."
