The Pittsburgh Steelers have found themselves in plenty of odd game scenarios over the years. That includes the time wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders faked an injury in the Steelers’ 2012 Week 7 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a strange occurrence that resulted in Sanders getting fined $15,000. He recently revealed why he did that.
“I think we was out in Cincinnati and I don’t know if we had any timeouts, but I just heard Ben [Roethlisberger] say, ‘One of y’all drop,’” Sanders said on the Cleats and Convos podcast. “So, you know me, I don’t give a damn. I dropped there, I’m faking it, I’m acting. They kept the camera on me the whole time.
“The next thing you know, I guess they found out that I had faked it and the ref had called something. I had got a fine. What’s cool about that story is, I think my fine was like $15,000. I didn’t really have no crazy money like that. Ben paid for that fine because he told a player to drop down and I was the one to drop down.”
For those who don’t remember, the acting job in question came with around six minutes left in the game. The Steelers were up 24-17 and they were trying to run out the rest of the clock or extend their lead. However, Roethlisberger got sacked on second down and was slow to get up. The Steelers didn’t want to burn a timeout, which led to Sanders taking a dive.
Ultimately, that play didn’t matter. Roethlisberger threw an incomplete pass on third down, and the Steelers punted the ball back to the Bengals. Funny enough, that was also one of the few times that Roethlisberger punted during his NFL career. The Steelers were at the Bengals’ 37-yard line, so they needed a short punt. Their defense held strong after that, forcing Cincinnati to quickly punt the ball back.
The Steelers ran out the rest of the clock on their next possession, winning the game. However, as Sanders says, there were consequences for his actions. In addition to Sanders getting docked, the Steelers were fined $35,000.
That didn’t hurt the team as much as Sanders’ penalty could’ve hurt him, though. That was only Sanders’ third NFL season, so he was still on his rookie contract. Therefore, $15,000 would’ve done a little more damage to his wallet.
Thankfully, Roethlisberger covered it. At that point, he was well established as the Steelers’ franchise quarterback, having been in the league for almost 10 years. He had already made a decent chunk of money.
Roethlisberger’s leadership abilities were often criticized, but in that situation, he stepped up. Sanders, a young receiver, was only doing what his quarterback asked of one of his receivers. It was nice of Roethlisberger to pick up the tab for him.