Unapologetic Meriweather feels hit was key to Patriots' victory

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THE BRANDON MERIWEATHER HIT
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Brandon Meriweather is $50,000 poorer, thanks to the NFL's penalty for his helmet-to-helmet hit on the Ravens' Todd Heap Sunday.

But don't expect Meriweather to apologize for his actions. He feels his hit was one of the reasons the Patriots beat Baltimore.

Meriweather -- who declined to comment on the hit when speaking to the media after Sunday's game -- refused to talk to reporters who were in the Patriots' locker room on Monday. But during a WEEI radio appearance earlier in the day, he not only expressed no remorse for the hit, but felt it was a key to the Patriots' victory.

"Y'all got the stats, right?" he said to hosts Dale Arnold and Michael Holley on the Dale And Holley Show. "What was the stats after that hit, and before it? I think it was a lot better after than it was before it. So, you know, if, if, if that's what we gotta do to, you know, get our team going, and to get our defense to be more aggressive, and be, you know, better on third down, then, you know, I'll take it."

Defensive captain Vince Wilfork agrees with Meriweather.

"The last thing I want to see is guys get hurt . . . and a penalty, a 15-yarder for Meriweather," Wilfork told Arnold and Holley. "But it was like after that play, it was like, 'Okay, let's play some football,' you know. And we started rolling from there."

Heap was helped off the field after the second-quarter hit, but returned to the game in the second half.

Meriweather's hit was one of two helmet-to-helmet blows on Sunday; in the other, the Falcons' Dunta Robinson hit the Eagles' DeSean Jackson and both were forced out of the game because of concussions. (Jackson, in fact, is expected to miss next Sunday's game, as well.) ESPN reported Monday that the NFL is expected to announce Wednesday that it will start suspending players for helmet-to-helmet hits and head shots.