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Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback A.J. Bouye said Wednesday he was among the players who received excessive fines from former team executive Tom Coughlin.
Bouye told the Florida Times-Union he was fined $10,000 for missing a mandatory yoga session. Other players like Leonard Fournette and Dante Fowler were also fined excessively under the Coughlin regime, an arbitrator ruled after a grievance was filed with the NFL Players’ Association.
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“I know what work bests for me as a player, and they didn’t want to hear that,” Bouye told the newspaper. “I remember one time I had an injury, and I got a little work done here, but I wanted to do all my work in my [hometown], and they were kind of getting on me.”
He added: “You never really know what you’re going to get fined for until it happens. You’ve got to find a way to appeal it and hope it won’t happen again. I’m just finding out about who got fined all that money. I hate that it happened. People laugh because it doesn’t happen anywhere else. They just laugh at us when it happens.”
Tom Coughlin was fired Wednesday after an arbitrator ruled his fines against team members were excessive. (USA TODAY Sports)
Bouye called Coughlin’s fines pointless and lamented some rookies who may have had their entire game check stripped because of the thousands of dollars they owed the organization.
Fournette and Fowler were among the players who had their money returned to them as part of the winning ruling. Fournette admitted he received a $99,000 fine for sitting on the bench during the final game of the 2018 as an inactive player. Fowler was fined more than $700,000 for missing health checkups at the team facility.
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Jacksonville fired Coughlin on Wednesday.
Team owner Shad Khan's statement thanked Coughlin for his years of service to the organization but also hinted that his spat with the players’ association had something to do with the timing of his termination.
"I determined earlier this fall that making this move at the conclusion of the 2019 season would be in everyone’s best interests but, in recent days, I reconsidered and decided to make this change immediately," the statement read.
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"I thank Tom for his efforts, not only over the past three years but for all he did from our very first season, 25 years ago, to put the Jacksonville Jaguars on the map. General Manager Dave Caldwell and Head Coach Doug Marrone will each report directly to me on an interim basis. My expectations, and those of our fans, for our final two games and the 2020 season are high."
Fox News’ Nick Givas contributed to this report.