Early in the fourth quarter of Cincinnati’s eventual loss to Kansas City, Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Chase was visibly upset after cornerback Trent McDuffie tackled him for a 4-yard gain and vocalized that displeasure to the officials, which led to his 15-yard penalty. Even with quarterback Joe Burrow trying to stop Chase and pull him back to the huddle, Chase kept going — and that’s when he was flagged.
During the CBS broadcast, sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson said Chase was upset because he felt McDuffie used the now-illegal hip-drop tackle to bring him down. But it was also clear from every replay that McDuffie did not, in fact, drop his hip to tackle Chase.
Via Paul Dehner Jr. of TheAthletic.com, Chase was asked about the penalty after the game and declined to address it. However, pool reporter Ben Baby of ESPN spoke to referee Alex Kemp about the interaction, and he confirmed that Chase was upset about the tackle and was flagged for what he said.
“It’s pretty clear cut. It’s just simply abusive language toward a game official,” Kemp said. “That’s all it was. And there was really no interpretation. I’m not going to repeat to you what he said, but there was no interpretation with the language that he used — just abusive language.”
Kemp noted there is a difference between a player using swear words and language that rises to the level of a foul.
“The simple answer is, profanity used by grown men versus direct, personal abusive language towards a game official. That’s the line,” Kemp said. “When that line gets crossed, we simply can’t let that happen in pro football.”
Kemp noted that the beginning of the interaction was Chase questioning the tackle. When Kemp was asked if he felt the appropriate call was made and if that was the explanation officials gave Chase, Kemp said, “We informed him that we did not feel it was a hip-drop tackle.”
The penalty was significant, as it gave Cincinnati third-and-22 instead of third-and-7. While Evan McPherson hit his 53-yard field goal attempt, the Bengals were ahead by only two points.
Kansas City’s Harrison Butker hit a 51-yard field goal as time expired to give the Chiefs a 26-25 win.