San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks has appealed the fine meted out to him for a hit on Drew Brees on Sunday.
Brooks was handed a $15,750 ($9,800) fine by the NFL after they ruled that his hit on the New Orleans Saints quarterback late in the fourth quarter of the 49ers' 23-20 loss was illegal.
However, the 29-year-old insists that there was nothing wrong with the hit and hopes that the appeal panel will listen to his argument when his hearing takes place on Tuesday.
"Hopefully they'll hear me out, because I didn't intentionally mean to knock him out like that, but that's part of the game," Brooks said.
"I didn't hit him in the head. You could argue maybe I got him in the neck a little bit, but it was really in the chest area, the collarbone.
"I didn't hit him with my helmet. It was my arm. I clotheslined him in his collarbone. Just by him falling and being 5-[foot]-11, 6-foot, it made it look like I hit him in the neck."
Brees has expressed his own belief that the play, which allowed the Saints to score a game-tying field goal before grabbing a last-gasp win, was illegal.
Barney Corkhill
