Nobody has ever accused the National Football League of being consistent. Indeed, it is the one area in which they do have consistency. While we’re typically talking about the decision to hand out fines and suspensions, the big story this extended weekend concerned a possible ejection that never came.
In Cleveland’s Monday Night Football loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Browns QB Deshaun Watson physically shoved an official to the side while hotly debating a call for a facemask penalty against him on ILB Kwon Alexander.
The video clearly shows the action. Watson appeared to be jawing with Steelers linebackers coach Denzel Martin as one of the officials tried to redirect him onto the field and away from the Steelers’ sideline. Seemingly extending his argument possibly with T Broderick Jones or another player not in view of the camera, he repositioned the official who was trying to remove him from the area, using both of his hands to pull him to the side by the arms.
The Athletic reporter Kayln Kahler spoke to multiple club staffers around the NFL whose business it is to deal with the league rules, and they maintained at the very least that the application of the rule is inconsistent. “The language is very clear on this”, one said, calling it an error on the part of the league office for “not calling in the ejection because that’s their standard and up to them to police it equally”.
“You talk about ‘scripted’”, another added. “This is why. ’Cause they don’t enforce rules fairly”. The NFL doesn’t want to see a franchise quarterback ejected from a primetime game, even if the rules clearly indicate he very well could have been, perhaps should have been. The rule as stated, under Unsportsmanlike Conduct:
Unnecessary physical contact with a game official. Under no circumstance is a player allowed to shove, push, or strike an official in an offensive, disrespectful, or unsportsmanlike manner. The player shall be disqualified from the game, and any such action must be reported to the Commissioner.
There was clearly physical contact, and it was clearly unnecessary. It was also obviously a push or shove, and I would argue it was disrespectful or unsportsmanlike—certainly as disrespectful or unsportsmanlike as the physical contact that got Arizona Cardinals OL Will Hernandez ejected last year for bumping into an official while trying to navigate around him and an opponent to get to his teammate and help protect or defend him in a skirmish.
Kahler notes that executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent has the authority to call for an ejection in the event that the on-field officials do not. In a statement, however, the league deferred to the judgment of its on-field officials.
“In the judgment of the officials, the contact did not rise to the level of a foul”, it reads. “Officials are called upon to maintain order on the field, and sometimes while performing those duties, there is inadvertent contact between players and officials”.
This was anything but inadvertent, however, and it’s frankly absurd to use that word in this context. This was not incidental contact, an accidental bump, an inability to balance one’s way around or between objects. Watson pulled the official out of his way because he was heated while jawing with the Steelers’ sideline after being penalized for unnecessary roughness.
