SAPP ON CLIFTON HIT “I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT”

During today’s NFL GameDay Morning, NFL Network news anchor Lindsay Soto ran through some of the items of interest in today’s games. One of those items was the return of Packers offensive tackle Chad Clifton to Tampa Bay, the place where he suffered a serious injury in 2002. The injury happened when Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp blindsided him, far away from the ball, with a hit that didn’t draw a penalty flag but was seen by many observers -- including then-Packers coach Mike Sherman -- as a cheap shot. At the end of her report, Soto said, “Some people expected Sapp to apologize for the hit, and he did not.” That was particularly interesting because Sapp is one of the analysts on NFL GameDay Morning. And he was sitting about 15 feet away from Soto at the time. Then Soto turned toward Sapp and said, “So Warren, my question for you: Do you still hear about this a lot from people, and do you think this reaction surrounding this situation was fair?” Before Sapp said a word, the other analyst on the set, Marshall Faulk, said, “He’s a cheap shot artist. That’s what he is.” Sapp replied to that by saying, “That makes it all worthwhile.” Faulk then burst into laughter. When Soto pressed Sapp to answer her question, Sapp said, “That was a long time ago. I forgot all about it. I forgot all about it. We had one little encounter when we slapped hands. He was back healthy, I was back healthy, we were playing football.” It’s debatable whether the hit itself was a cheap shot or not. But it doesn’t speak well for Sapp that he’s so flippant about badly injuring an opponent.