I guess it was to be expected.

The hammer came down on Eric Smith Tuesday as the NFL suspended the Jets safety for one game and fined him $50,000 for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin Sunday.  Boldin was taken off the field in a stretcher, but was said to be fully mobile and "resting comfortably at home" on Monday evening, according to Arizona spokesman Mark Dalton.

Here was NFL executive V.P. of football operations Ray Anderson's view on the hit: 

"The message is clear: There are no free passes for illegal technique when someone puts a player at risk, including the [offending player] himself.  Once you leave your feet to launch, in the view of the competition committee, you now have strict liability if you end up helmet to helmet with another player. When you launch, you take away your ability to be in control.

"This commissioner just sent a reminder to be read by all teams and the players received a copy of the memo about player safety. We said then, going forward, this is very, very serious stuff. We've had an emphasis here for a couple of years now and the commissioner is very concerned about concussions and potentially catastrophic injuries and we need to avoid putting our players at risk like this. As the memo said, the game is tough enough. … we want to make sure players know how we want the game played."

I understand what Anderson is saying, but things happen so fast on the field that sometimes it's nearly impossible to judge players.  Smith wasn't penalized on the play and like it or not, defenders are trying to knock out receivers when they're going for the football.  Kerry Rhodes hit Boldin from behind on the play and that may have put Boldin in a position to take the helmet-to-helmet hit.  Yes, it was a scary situation, but would there have been a punishment if Boldin bounced up and ran back to the huddle?  I'm not sure.

Anyway, Smith will serve his suspension when the Green and White take on the Cincinnati Bengals Oct. 12 at the Meadowlands.  Smith, who was also shaken up in the collision, needed to watch a replay to see what happened on the play.

I guess the good thing is that both players were able to walk away -- eventually.

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