National Football League - Denver Broncos

Shanahan to be fined for jersey shenanigans

NEW YORK -- Broncos coach Mike Shanahan is getting hit with a substantial fine after all.

Shanahan escaped with a slap on the wrist this week for "fibbing" about the nature of an injury to QB Jake Plummer, but he's about to be slapped with a major sum for a decision he made to disregard another NFL rule.

The NFL Today and SportsLine.com have learned the league office is slated to hit Shanahan with a "substantial five-figure fine" for deciding to show up to San Diego with the wrong uniforms.

Before each season, uniform colors are set for each game, based on the home team's preference. The Chargers and Broncos agreed San Diego would wear their white uniforms, with the Broncos donning the darker color. Many teams that play in high temperature climates prefer to put opponents in dark blue or black in order to literally turn up the heat.

But when Denver arrived for last Sunday's contest Shanahan's boys decided to go with their whites, which in turn would keep his players cooler in the Southern California sun. This is a blatant violation of league rules and will warrant a substantial penalty from commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who has yet to sign off on a final number.

The Chargers were irritated they would not only lose the advantage they had with regard to beating the heat, but they were also forced to gather their blue uniforms at the last moment. The team's equipment men had to hurriedly gather a completely different set of equipment for the game in order to have the two sides wear different team colors.

Considering how much fire Shanahan drew this week for his bogus injury report of Plummer during last week's game, this new twist makes the entire affair that much more bizarre.

During last Sunday's victory over San Diego, the Broncos coach told the CBS broadcast team Plummer had a concussion and his return was questionable. Plummer, in fact, had a slight separation of his shoulder, but the coach deliberately fibbed in order to prevent the Chargers defense from knowing what the cause was of his early exodus from the game. Shanahan claimed he didn't want the Chargers to be able to go after the shoulder and they should therefore not be entitled to such information.

The NFL, however, has a rule that coaches must provide accurate information during games to their broadcast teams. Without such a rule, networks could be forced to send a reporter to each sideline in order to scoop out the injury status of several players. In addition, it was agreed upon by the clubs and the networks before the year that teams would be as accurate as possible in such reports.

Tagliabue sent a memo to team presidents, GMs and coaches this week, stating the next such blatant disregard for the rules would result in disciplinary action.

According to the memo obtained from a team executive, the commissioner writes:

"For a variety of reasons, all team personnel, including coaches and medical staff, have a responsibility to report player injury information factually and accurately whenever public comment on such matters is needed. The credibility of the League, NFL teams, owners and team personnel requires this -- for players, fans, media and the public generally.

"... Every coach wants to protect his players and win every game. However, this policy clearly prohibits clubs from issuing blatantly false and inaccurate information, which undermines the credibility of our game and is a disservice to the fans. ... Subsequent violations of this policy are likely to result in disciplinary action."

This article was taken from www.sportsline.com.  All rights reserved.