Danny Trevathan Suspension: Bears LB gets two-game ban for hit on Packers’ Davante Adams

On Saturday, the NFL announced that it has suspended Chicago Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan for the next two games as a result of his hit to the head of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams during the Packers’ 35-14 victory on Thursday night.

The league has judged Trevathan’s hit, in which he led with the crown of his helmet to make forceful contact with Adams’ helmet and cause Adams’ mouthguard to fly across the field, to be a violation of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 6(i) of the rulebook. That rule specifies the following:

There shall be no unnecessary roughness. This shall include, but will not be limited to: (i) using any part of a player’s helmet or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily;

Trevathan’s suspension will begin immediately and will cause him to forfeit his game checks for each of the next two games, in which the Bears host the Minnesota Vikings before traveling to play the Baltimore Ravens. His base salary is $2 million for 2016, and so those game checks will equate out to about $125,000 apiece for a total of a quarter-million dollars in income lost.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Trevathan plans to appeal the suspension.

After the hit, Adams was taken off the field on a stretcher and immediately went to the hospital, but was found to have only a concussion, luckily avoiding any injuries to the bones of the head and neck or to the spinal cord. He tweeted on Friday afternoon that he had been released from the hospital and was at home recovering.