Horn to appeal $30,000 fine for mobile phone stunt

NEW ORLEANS Saints receiver Joe Horn was fined $30,000 by the NFL for making a choreographed mobile phone call in the end zone to celebrate a touchdown.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed the amount of the fine. Horn’s agent, Ralph Vitolo, said the player will appeal.

“Fining him is one thing, but to me that’s very excessive. This is not a murder case,” Vitolo said.

Return specialist Michael Lewis was fined $5,000 for helping orchestrate the stunt, and Horn told Vitolo that he would pay that fine.

After catching the second of four touchdown passes in a 45-7 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday, Horn was handed a phone by Lewis, who pulled it out from under the padding used to protect the goalposts.

Horn was still wearing his helmet when he rang his children who were watching the game at home.

“Would I take it back? No, no. I knew exactly what I was doing,” Horn said after the game.

The Saints were penalised 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for the stunt.

Horn was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct for the second time this season and the seventh time since 2000, Aiello said.

Head coach Jim Haslett said the team would not punish Horn, but that he was disappointed in the receiver's “selfish” act.

After San Francisco’s Terrell Owens pulled a pen out of his sock and autographed a football after scoring a touchdown in a game, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue sent a memo to all teams warning that such stunts would be punished.

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Johnson was also fined $10,000 by the NFL for retrieving a sign from behind a snowdrift and holding it up after a 10-yard touchdown catch on Sunday.

Johnson’s sign read: “Dear NFL: Please don’t fine me again.”