With the recent news that Travis Johnson was fined for a late hit, I got to thinking:

Where does all the money the NFL collects in fines go?

The NFL site was no help at all. I then turned to my friend Google and found a few things:

No one knows how much they collect each year: You have to add up the numbers manually. Even when you do that there is no official number published concerning how much they collect in total:

"We're not going to break out every little detail," says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. 

No one knows where the money goes: I found a couple of results that say the money goes to charity or even the disabled players association, but no definitive resource. I need to follow up on this. It would seem odd if the team or the league kept the money.

Fines are just public relations: In most cases fines are reduced or removed after the publicity surrounding the event dies down. Since the NFL doesn't report on reductions you don't know how much a player does pay.

One thing that might cause people to be upset is that NFL fines might be tax deductible. The TaxProf blog had a running thread discussing the issue and the verdict they reached is that you can deduct them.  

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