Julius Thomas Must Be Suspended For Cheap Shot on Calais Campbell

The dirtiest play of the 2014 NFL season took place in Week 5 at Mile High Stadium. Denver tight end Julius Thomas took out defensive end Calais Campbell with a blatant chop block just a minute and 30 seconds into the second half.

Left tackle Ryan Clady was charged with a 15-yard penalty on the play, but it was Thomas, not Clady, that did the damage. The penalty nullified a 77-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning to Demaryius Thomas, but still ended up being a “positive” play for the Broncos.

Campbell would sit out the rest of the game and is expected to miss the next 3-4 weeks with an MCL sprain. Prior to the play, Denver was not able to get anything going in the running game and the game was still well within reach. With the Cardinals defensive end out, the Broncos controlled the ground game for the remainder of the contest to seal the victory.

As Bruce Arians said in his post-game interview, a fine does nothing in this situation. Not only did the injury affect the outcome of this game, but it hurts Arians’ team moving forward.

Arizona lost one of its best defenders on an incredibly unnecessary play that, in my eyes, is dirtier than the majority of helmet-to-helmet collisions that we see on a weekly basis. Targeting a player’s knee like this could have ended his career.

It was an absolutely sickening play from Julius Thomas, and he should face a suspension with a minimum length of the number of games that Campbell will miss due to injury.