Sure, I’m an unabashed Browns fan, but there’s something terribly wrong about this.

Last Sunday, the Ravens’ 340-pound lineman Haloti Ngata connected with a punch to the helmet of the Browns’ Joe Thomas. Thomas was lying on the turf, having just tackled Ray Lewis, who had recovered Braylon Edwards’ fumble. Ngata apparently found something objectionable and decided to bounce Thomas’ head against the turf.

The personal foul cost his team 15 yards, but Ngata was not ejected for this flagrantly violent act:

Later in the first quarter, the Browns’ Jamal Lewis, celebrating his 25-yard catch and run, spikes the ball at no one in particular on the Ravens’ sideline.

He too is penalized 15 yards. Though TV commentator Solomon Wilcots disagreed with the penalty, I couldn’t honestly dispute that the spike in that situation was unsportsmanlike.

For the game, the Browns were flagged 12 times for 102 yards. The Ravens were nailed just one other time, an obvious demonstration of face-guarding in the end zone.

Today, the NFL levied fines of $5,000 each to both Ngata and Lewis.

This verdict is an outright travesty that sends a startlingly poor message about the league’s priorities. This puts Lewis’ excessive enthusiasm on the same level as an action that, had it occurred in the stands, the street, or anywhere else in society, would rightly be cause for a criminal assault charge.

The fine, to someone of Ngata’s income, carries about the same punch as a $100 ticket would to someone earning $50,000 a year.

Ngata should’ve been ejected on the spot, fined no less than $15K, and been forced to explain himself to the league office as to why he should not be suspended.

Treating a deliberate, unprovoked blow to the head of a prone player as garden variety misconduct — with a fine equal to those typically issued for taunting, helmet-to-helmet tackles, and uniform violations — reveals something perilously close to organizational psychopathology.