Texans player suspended for dirty hit on Ja’Marr Chase

In the Cincinnati Bengals’ loss to the Houston Texans Sunday, the shorthanded Bengals seemed to avoid disaster when star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase took a vicious shot to the head from linebacker Denzel Perryman.

It was a clearly dirty hit, and surprisingly, Perryman was only flagged for the play, not ejected. Chase, who is already playing through a back injury, luckily wasn’t hurt on the play and remained in the game. Perryman led with the crown of his helmet, striking Chase in a very dangerous way.

On Tuesday, the NFL took notice, suspending Perryman for three games without pay for repeated violations of rules in place to protect the health and safety of players.

While the Chase hit was the last straw in the NFL’s eyes, Perryman was suspended due to his history of hits that are deemed unsafe by the league office.

Outside of that play, it seemed to be a fairly clean game, but the NFL has to act on plays like this if they truly care as much about player safety as they say they do. Thankfully, they took notice and made it clear that hits like this and others in Perryman’s history won’t go unnoticed.

Perryman will likely appeal the suspension.