Cooks was equally as responsible for the hit he lowered his helmet.
Sorry, but that's just bullshit.
If the defender had proceeded properly based on all the info given to players and trained in the off-season to "heads up, wrap up", then this doesn't happen.
There is a difference between lowering one's head and covering up. Cooks covered up.
The Seattle defender put his head down and threw his shoulder with an extended forearm.
In that instance, it doesn't matter if it was completely accidental, H2H means just that. The defender initiated the contact and by rule it's not only a severe penalty, but is potentially grounds for expulsion from the game.
The fact that there was no published fine only further illustrates that Goodell and Troy Vincent don't give a shit about player safety (how long have I been saying this????????), but they focus on "containment".
So, if a ref blows a huge call where a player is injured, the LAST thing they want to do is fine the offender because that PROVES that refs on the field are not either expert enough, competent enough or understaffed enough to simply miss calls that are as big a point of emphasis as the new roughing the QB calls.
What we see know is that the money guys realize that there's less attention on CTE now and what fans mostly care about when scoring is up is that THEIR QB is playing. That's it.
Well, sorry, I abandoned my first love, baseball...(girls came later) because it SICKENED me that they'd sold the soul of the game for ratings rather than rebuild the game the right way. We all knew after the strike that MLB knew about the oncoming steroid scandal and did nothing because attendance was up at EVERY park while McGwire and Sosa duked it out in the hunt for Maris' record...
It's just patently clear that the NFL is still paying lip service to player safety, especially when their narrative or profits are endangered.