Hue Jackson, John Dorsey, and the Cleveland Browns made the decision to send DeShone Kizer to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Damarious Randall, whom they would move to safety. Yesterday, Randall finally got the opportunity to hand Jackson a pass he intercepted. Only this time they were on the opposite sideline.
The organization fired Jackson a few weeks ago, and he quickly resurfaced with the Cincinnati Bengals as a special assistant to Head Coach Marvin Lewis. The Bengals have gone 0-2 since his arrival, though to be fair they were already losing a bunch before that.
Randall intercepted an Andy Dalton pass about a third of the way into the game, going out of bounds on Cincinnati’s side of the field, near where Jackson was. He handed his former head coach the football without saying a word. Jackson patted him on the head and thanked him for the ball.
“I never gave him one when he was with the Browns, so I felt he needed one”, he said after the game. He had told a few of his teammates just a few snaps before getting the interception that that is what he was going to do if he got one that day. In fact, he said he was planning on getting more than one.
Prior to the game, the safety said that the Bengals were going to be “getting their ass beat” if Pro Bowl wide receiver A.J. Green did not play. He did not play, and, well, they got their ass beat. It was 28-0 before the Bengals ever even got on the board.
It’s worth noting that after it was announced Jackson would be joining the Bengals, Randall Tweeted out a series of ‘laughing while crying’ emojis in response. I’m sure you can make of that what you will. In a subsequent Tweet, he added, paraphrasing, that the hire was about figuring out how to beat the Browns, whom Cincinnati still had to play twice.
— Damarious Randall (@RandallTime) November 13, 2018
One thing seems clear, and that is that what he did wasn’t exactly a sign of respect. You can make your own decision as to whether or not it was in poor taste or if it was funny (personally, I thought it was a bit of both), but it certainly drew attention.
His pick of Dalton was his third on the season, and he now has at least three interceptions in each of his first four seasons, now with 13 for his career. His 57 tackles are one off his career high from his rookie season, and he also has seven passes defensed.
