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Ryan Fitzpatrick offers to donate to charity of Bills RT’s choice after NFL fines him

Former Buffalo BIlls quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has offered to donate to a charity of Spencer Brown's choice after the NFL fined him for a Week 10 play.

Kyle Silagyi

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Though his official alma mater is listed as Northern Iowa, Buffalo Bills right tackle Spencer Brown may be a graduate of the Terrell Owens School of “That’s My Quarterback,” as he went to bat his signal-caller in the second quarter of his team’s Week 10 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Buffalo passer Josh Allen scored on a designed run at roughly the halfway point of the contest, taking the ball 13 yards to the house to give the Bills a 17-13 lead. Indianapolis safety Nick Cross made contact with Allen before he crossed the goalline and finished his tackle once the quarterback reached paydirt, pushing the former All-Pro down out of bounds. Brown took offense to this, going over to have a… conversation with the defensive back at the conclusion of the play.

Brown was issued a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the play, and the NFL revisited the extracurricular on Wednesday by issuing the fourth-year tackle a $12,000 fine. The lineman revealed that he had been fined in a Wednesday post on X.

Former Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was not all too happy with Brown’s fine, responding to his post by writing “Seemed like a friendly conversation to me….cmon Roger [Goodell]. Just know Bills Mafia appreciates it every time you protect [Allen]….it’s teach tape on how serious an offensive lineman needs to take his responsibilities.” The long-time NFL signal-caller took it a step further with a quote tweet, offering to partner with two-time All-Pro offensive tackle (and his podcast co-host) Andrew Whitworth to donate $12,000 (the price of the fine) to a charity of Brown’s choosing.

This is the second time in three weeks that Fitzpatrick has offered to reach into his own wallet to right what he perceived as a Buffalo-centric wrong, as he tweeted that he would pay Bills linebacker Joe Andreessen’s $4,421.29 fine after the rookie made a special teams tackle in a Week 8 win over the Seattle Seahawks; the undrafted defender’s fine was ultimately rescinded.

Fitzpatrick’s Wednesday gesture, though grand, is perhaps unsurprising given his relationship with Bills fans and Buffalo, as a whole. He suited up for nine different clubs throughout his 17-year career, but he’s long said that the Bills were his favorite, noting a special connection with the fanbase and general region. An Arizona native who famously attended Harvard University, Fitzpatrick wasn’t predisposed to liking Buffalo—he just got it, and the fans understood him. Thus was birthed a mutually affectionate relationship that’s perhaps as strong today as it was over a decade ago, with Fitzpatrick now taking a page out of Bills Mafia’s book to donate to a charity backed by a Buffalo player.

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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