Posted by Will Brinson

One of the bigger headlines from the early games was the fight that broke out in Houston between Andre Johnson and Cortland Finnegan of the Titans. That's primarily because a) it was pretty crazy and b) it probably means a suspension is coming for Johnson, which is highly problematic for the Texans offense.

After the game, though, Johnson was apologetic and stated that he hoped to avoid missing any games as a result of punishment from the NFL.

"I really don’t have anything to say about Cortland," Johnson said according to the Texans' website. "I would like to apologize to the organization, our owner, and my teammates. What happened out there today was not me. I just lost my cool and I wish that I could take back what happened, but I can't. It's over and done with now. I'm pretty sure that I'll be disciplined for it. When that time comes, I'll find out what it is and have to deal with it from there ... I hope that I’m not suspended for the next game."

He's definitely going to be disciplined -- at the bare minimum, he'll get nailed with a monster fine. There are at least a couple of mitigating factors out there for Johnson, though.

First of all, Richard Seymour took a cheap shot at Ben Roethlisberger last week, was ejected and fined, but not suspended, something Texans offensive lineman Eric Winston pointed out.

"Seymour got kicked out last game, right?" Winston said. "Did he get to play this game? He wasn’t (suspended), right? So, (Johnson) should be able to play."

There's also the fact that Finnegan has a "dirty" label attached to his name, and seemed to have at least provoked Johnson throughout the game and then, following the fight, egged on fans. (An action that'll probably bring him the standard $25,000 hit there.)

The nature of the fight was such that avoiding a suspension would be surprising, but weirder things have happened with NFL punishments before.