NFL Overturns Sam Franklin's One-Game Spitting Suspension, Reduces It to a Fine
Buffalo safety Sam Franklin won his appeal Friday after the league's hearing officer reduced his one-game suspension for allegedly spitting at a Raiders player in Week 6 to a $14,926 fine, meaning he can play in Week 8.
The Buffalo Bills will have Sam Franklin available in Week 8 after the NFL overturned his one-game suspension on appeal. The league announced Friday that hearing officer James Thrash, jointly appointed by the NFL and the players' union, had reduced Franklin's punishment from a suspension to a $14,926 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Franklin was set to be sidelined from Monday, October 26 to Monday, November 2 — the week leading up to and including Buffalo's Week 8 game following their Week 7 bye. The incident dated back to the Bills' Week 6 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, when Franklin allegedly spat at an opponent after the Raiders kicked an extra point with 1:32 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Franklin, the Bills' special teams captain, signed a three-year, $7.5 million extension in February and has appeared in all six games this season, exclusively on special teams, after spending his first five NFL seasons with the Carolina Panthers. Teammate and fellow defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson was not so fortunate: he was ejected from the same Raiders game for spitting at tight end Brock Bowers, suspended for the Bills' Week 8 matchup, and remains out despite a subsequent apology.