Dre Greenlaw fined for penalty after suffering major injury in week 1
Dre Greenlaw of the San Francisco 49ers will be out of the lineup for the foreseeable future and now he will be out of some money, as well. Greenlaw was fined by the NFL due to his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting in week one’s win over the Detroit Lions.
Unsportsmanlike crackdown
The 49ers linebacker was flagged for the infraction after picking off Jared Goff and returning it for a touchdown. As Greenlaw scampered into the end zone you can clearly see him turn and wave at the Lions players attempting to him down.
Over the offseason, the NFL made it clear that they would be cracking down on taunting during the 2021 season. Previous gestures such as waving at opponents while scoring, as Greenlaw did will now result in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. And those penalties have fines attached to them. The $5,169 he loses out on will be donated to a charity by the NFL.
The fine literally adds insult to injury as he will miss sometime after injuring his groin in the win. The injury was not discovered until after the game and is being described as a groin/core injury. It is believed he suffered the injury on the pick-six. Greenlaw underwent successful surgery on Thursday to repair the injury. He is expected to be out six to eight weeks as of now.
In his first two seasons in the NFL Greenlaw started in 22 of the 29 games he played in. He has a total of 178 tackles with 125 of them solo, 10 tackles for a loss, two sacks, and an interception. In his rookie season, he was named to the 2019 NFL All-Rookie team.
49ers plans going forward
For the 49ers there is no replacing the level of productivity and energy the 24-year-old linebacker brought to the defense. But San Francisco still has a game to play against the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. So they will turn to another pick-up from the 2019 draft in Azeez Al-Shaair. While the 49ers spent a fourth-round draft pick up Greenlaw, San Francisco signed Al-Shaair as an undrafted rookie that year.
The 49ers defense will have their hands full next week trying to stop the Eagles’ talented sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts is a threat passing and with his feet.