Leader of NFL's Players Coalition Tells Replay Refs 'Stay Off the Bottle'
Malcolm Jenkins of the Philadelphia Eagles is no stranger to making inflammatory statements on and off the field.
Jenkins, after all, is best known outside of Philadelphia for being the leader of the “Players Coalition,” which lobbies the league about social justice issues.
But his latest flashpoint for controversy has nothing to do with the national anthem or anything else apart from the sport of professional football and unprofessional referees.
Jenkins clobbered Jourdan Lewis of the Cowboys on the opening kickoff, knocking the ball loose and seemingly giving the Eagles the opening possession of the game deep in Dallas territory when Kamu Grugier-Hill emerged from the pile with the ball in hand.
The referees initially ruled Lewis down by contact, nullifying the fumble.
The Eagles, however, challenged, and while the call was indeed reversed to a fumble rather than a simple tackle, it was ruled “inconclusive” who came away with the ball, so Dallas retained possession, a critical opening move in a game the Cowboys would go on to win 29-23 in overtime.
The Eagles’ fumble recovery that wasn’t https://t.co/hj91wfqk4M
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald) December 9, 2018
So not only does the NFL not know what a catch is, apparently “guy emerges from the bottom of a pile with the ball after a fumble” is no longer a fumble recovery.
As noted frustrated football placekicker Charlie Brown would say, “Good grief.”
Jenkins, meanwhile, was a lot less civil than Charles Schulz’s comic strip protagonist.
“That was a pretty terrible call,” Jenkins said. “They reviewed it and the explanation I got was that it wasn’t a clear recovery, although Kamu had the ball in his hand and there was only Eagles defenders on the ball in replay. So whoever’s watching that in New York should stay off the bottle.”
Grugier-Hill also seemed perplexed by what the replay officials were looking at.
“They just said that the video didn’t show me getting up actually with the ball, but it was clear I had the ball, so I don’t understand,” he said.
“It was all green jerseys. It was all green jerseys.”
The Eagles, which came into the game at 6-6 and desperately trying to rescue their season, instead saw themselves with a much harder road to the playoffs.
Minnesota and Seattle, who play each other Monday night, are 6-5-1 and 7-5 respectively; both will be in the two wild card spots regardless of their contest’s result, and Seattle has two of its remaining three games at home to put themselves in the catbird seat for the No. 5 seed.
The Redskins and Panthers are both 6-7. While Carolina’s probably dead in the water (they play the Saints twice in their last three games), the ‘Skins play Philly on the last day of the season in Washington in what could be a winner-take-all game.
Of course, that’s provided the Redskins’ 40-16 shellacking at the hands of the Giants Sunday isn’t indicative of the quality of their team with a third-string quarterback.
Point is, Jenkins has a genuine right to be angry after the refs just made life harder for his team and took away control of their own destiny for the playoffs.
“Common sense, you saw Kamu come out with the ball. Obviously, they don’t pay me to make calls like that,” Jenkins said. “But that was, in hindsight, obviously a big play in the game.”
And if we live in a world where emerging from the bottom of a pile with a football isn’t recovering a fumble, then what sport are they even playing out there?
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