Buffalo Bills’ offensive tackle Cody Ford was fined this week for his hit late in the playoff game against the Houston Texans.
The Buffalo Bills saw their season essentially end when offensive tackle Cody Ford was called for an illegal blindside hit during overtime against the Houston Texans. The hit occurred on a run by Josh Allen that would have had the Bills within field goal range to win the game.
While watching the game, the penalty seemed to be questionable at best but the NFL has seemingly doubled down on the call and Ford was fined $28,075, according to Ian Rapoport.
#Bills RT Cody Ford was fined $28,075 for unnecessary roughness for the illegal blindside block that knocked his team out of field-goal range in overtime last week against the #Texans. They punted, Houston drove for a winning field goal … now a fine on top of it.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 11, 2020
As Rapoport notes, the Bills had to punt after this penalty and the Texans were able to win the game on their next drive.
This is certainly not the way the Bills wanted to see their season end, and not the way Ford wanted to see a promising rookie season come to a close.
The Bills drafted Ford in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft and started competing for a starting job almost immediately. During training camp, Ford saw snaps at both right tackle and right guard, partly due to injury but also so the coaching staff could figure out his best position.
The team eventually landed on him as their right tackle and he would rotate with veteran Ty Nsekhe. Towards the end of the season though Ford was their primary right tackle due in part to Nsekhe suffering an injury.
The news of the league’s fine did not sit well with the Buffalo Bills’ fan base as they have already started a GoFundMe for the right tackle, according to ESPN’s Marcel Louis Jacques.
Fans have started a GoFundMe to pay Cody Ford’s hit. I’m told he’d use the money for either charity or a part in Buffalo to meet Bills fans https://t.co/ExxjtDZtqe
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) January 11, 2020
As noted in the tweet, Ford is planning on using the money to donate to charity or a party in Buffalo to meet fans.