Report: NFL fines Chiefs coach Greg Lewis for incident with Browns player

According to Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter — who is also the president of the NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) — the NFL has fined Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Greg Lewis for his role in an incident involving Browns safety Ronnie Harrison Jr. during a Week 1 game between the two teams in Kansas City.

A story published by Yahoo! Sports columnist Charles Robinson on Monday evening quoted Tretter directly.

“It has been communicated to us that the Chiefs coach was fined by the NFL,” said the union president.

Robinson also reported that a second source within the union confirmed that “the NFLPA was notified of the fine in a communication from a league executive.”

Last week, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that Harrison had been fined $12,128 — and that Lewis had only been given a warning for touching an opposing player. In addition, the league sent a memo to all its teams reminding them that “unnecessary physical contact with or directing abusive, threatening, or insulting language or gestures at opponents, game officials, or representatives of the League” would be penalized.

During the game, the incident between Harrison and Lewis initially drew a penalty only for Kansas City. Officials then called an offsetting penalty on Harris — and ejected him from the game.

Robinson reported Tretter as saying that coaches should be held to a higher standard than players.

“I expect that [Lewis] gets held to the same [ejection] standard — if not a higher standard than Ronnie,” Tretter said. “[For] being the first one in there and being a coach putting his hands on an opposing player.”

While NFL Network reporters typically report fines on coaches, none of them have yet covered this story. Robinson — who had written an opinion piece a week ago Monday that strongly suggested the NFL had mismanaged the incident — said that the league had not returned a request for comment on the reported fine on Lewis.