Colin Cole’s price for toppling Devin Hester on the sideline after the returner was out of bounds last Sunday at Green Bay is apparently only 15 yards.
An NFL spokesman said Cole was not fined on the play for which he drew a penalty for unnecessary roughness. Cole was not involved in the play in which Hester was run out of bounds by Tramon Williams. The Bears had submitted the play to the league office for review and were confident Cole would be levied for the hit.
“I just know we’re going to show it before we see them next time,” special teams coordinator Dave Toub said earlier in the week. “We’ve got to show it to the players. I was [mad] when I saw it on film. We didn’t know what was going on from our sideline. What are you going to do?”
The Bears and Packers meet again Dec. 22 at Soldier Field.
Cole played the role of the good samaritan after the game.
“What it was is that I think they saw a little guy running toward the sideline who came to an abrupt halt,” Cole said. “Namely me. I guess they just felt that it was too abrupt a halt and they wanted to call a flag.
“I think most anybody in here is going to say it’s a bad flag. You know what? He was coming out of bounds. At the last moment I noticed he was going to run directly into me. He ran into me. He fell backwards. I don’t know what they expect to happen. If I had jumped to the side, he could have run into somebody a little older than I am and caused somebody harm or something like that. It’s best that I took it on and didn’t let anybody else behind me get into danger.”
One Packer did come out of the game lighter in the wallet. Cornerback Al Harris was fined $7,500 for the facemask penalty he received in the third quarter when he attempted to tackle tight end Greg Olsen.
