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George Pickens of the Dallas Cowboys.

What was supposed to have been a promising season for the Dallas Cowboys skidded farther off the rails on Monday Night Football when they fell to the 3-5 Arizona Cardinals, a team that was playing without starting quarterback Kyler Murray.

Behind 32-year-old journeyman signal-caller Jacoby Brissett, playing for his sixth different team in the last six years and seventh in his 10-year career, the Cardinals blew past Dallas at AT&T Stadium 27-17, dropping the Cowboys record too 3-5-1 and effectively extinguishing whatever playoff hopes Dallas may have had left.

The Cowboys; cause was not helped by fourth-year wide receiver George Pickens, whose unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting derailed a Dallas comeback late in the fourth quarter, needlessly setting the offense back 15 yards.

“With the Cowboys trailing by 10, wide receiver George Pickens made a first-down reception to the Cowboys’ 48-yard line,” described Dallas Morning News Cowboys correspondent Calvin Watkins. “Instead of Pickens tossing the ball to one of the officials or laying the ball down, he pointed the ball into the face of defender Denzel Burke.”

Fine Likely on Way for Pickens

While NFL fines are not publicly announced until the following Saturday, and the league does not necessarily level a fine for every unsportsmanlike conduct offense, with Pickens’ lengthy track record, it appears at least more likely than not that he will be forced to surrender a chunk of his paycheck as a result of his actions in the MNF game.

The designated fine for taunting as determined by the NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is $11,593. But for Pickens, the taunting penalty was his second this season. In fact, it was his second in three weeks.

In week 7, when the Cowboys took on and defeated the Washington Commanders, Pickens drew a taunting fine for yelling in the face of Washington cornerback Marshon Lattimore, then bumping his opponent’s chest.

Despite the fact that the game officials did not throw a flag in real time, the league looked at the play and felt it was worthy of a fine anyway. Pickens was slapped with the designated $11,593 punishment for the taunt.

2nd Taunting Offense Would Bring Increased Fine

That incident makes Pickens a repeat offender for his actions on Monday. For a second offense, per the NFL CBA, the fine that Pickens can now expect will be $17,389.

If indeed the NFL punishes Pickens, the fine would be his fourth already this season in just nine games. Pickens was fined not just once but twice for his actions in a Week 2 game against the New York Giants — once for a “finger gun” celebration after a touchdown which the NFL deemed a banned “violent gesture,” and also for removing his helmet before leaving the field.

Neither incident was called for a penalty by those game officials either.

Fined 10 Times as a Steeler

Each fine hit Pickens in the wallet to the tune of $14,491, a total of $28,982 for the single game. Assuming, as expected, the NFL punishes Pickens over his “pointing the ball” taunt on Monday, that would bring his total fines for the year so far to $57,964.

In his three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before being traded to the Cowboys over the offseason, Pickens was fined 10 times, for a total of $205,139. The 24-year-old former Georgia Bulldog has a lengthy history of on-field incidents, dating back to his college career when he was suspended for fighting in a game against Georgia Tech.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin

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