Harrison fines could pay for a lot of stuff

By Jeff

If you can't tell, Harrison is
not happy he's being fined.

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison was fined again by the NFL. This time he is coughing up $25,000 for tackling Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Whether you think it was a penalty or not doesn't matter. He's going to pay the fine and live with it. Harrison has now been fined $125,000 by the league.

While that's nothing to Harrison - he signed a contract worth $51 million last season - it's still a lot of money. That kind of cash could purchase the following things (sales tax not included):

• 125,000 items from any fast food chain's value menu

• Probably the entire stock at multiple Dollar Stores

• 416 PS3's

• 6,944 copies of "Iron Man 2". Only 5,000 if you prefer Blue Ray

• 160 iPhone 4s

• 6,250 2-entree deals at Chili's

• 20,868 2-entree plates at Panda Express (I prefer a double dose of orange chicken)

• Depending on where you go or went to school, about four years worth of tuition

• 12,500 bed nets to help prevent malaria in Africa (http://www.nothingbutnets.net/nets-save-lives/)

• About half of a Miracle League Field (http://www.caseysclubhouse.org/)

• 41,806 gallons of regular gasoline (at $2.99 per gallon)

• 80 round trip flights to Guam

• 4,166 dogs from the Guam Animals in Need animal shelter (Probably won't put a dent in the stray dog population)

• About 100,000 20-ounce bottles of water (Unless you're getting them at an amusement park or sports venue, then you're only going to get about 41,666 bottles.)

• 25,000 feet of sandwiches at Subway

• Enough AIDS antiretrovirals to help 1,420 infected individuals for a year

OK, so some of the the above items would be more helpful than others. Maybe I am being way too idealistic, but what if the NFL, which is a multi-billion dollar industry, took all of the fines they handed out during the season, matched the final amount and distributed that money to multiple charities? Wouldn't that be a great PR move for them. Teams and players could complain about being fined, but how is the public going to take the players' side if the NFL is matching the final sum and helping people with it? 

Peter Gabriel - Biko