When Myles Garrett swung a helmet at an opponent, he got suspended indefinitely and had to go on an apology tour before returning the next season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers punter Jake Camarda wasn't even penalized when he appeared to swing his helmet at an opponent. In fact, officials picked up a flag.
The Buffalo Bills and Buccaneers got in a bit of a skirmish after a field-goal attempt, which happens in NFL games. But it got weird when Camarda hit Bills defensive lineman Greg Rousseau with his helmet.
Camarda's helmet came off when he was being pushed by linebacker Terrel Bernard and he swung it. He hit Rousseau in his helmet.
"Oh, helmet swing there," analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on Amazon Prime Video.
The #Bills and #Buccaneers are fighting and #Bucs Jake Camarda took off his helmet and swung it... and the refs picked up the flag! pic.twitter.com/yEl16GePDS
— Tanner Phifer (@TannerPhiferNFL) October 27, 2023
The argument that Camarda could make is his helmet was coming off and he didn't intentionally swing it at anyone, he was just grabbing it as he was being pushed and it happened to hit Rousseau in the head. You can judge for yourself from the replay.
Either way, it wasn't penalized. Officials actually picked up a flag that was thrown and didn't give any penalties for the scrum.
It wasn't exactly the Garrett situation from 2019, when the Cleveland Browns defensive end took Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph's helmet off and hit him with it. That was far more blatant. But the NFL will probably still take a look at the replay over the next couple days.
