Carolina Panthers’ Haasan Reddick believes it was a dirty play–Mac Jones holding onto Brian Burns ankle following a fumble. But was it?
When a ball is fumbled, the game changes as neither team has possession of the ball. Both teams have a right to the ball, and the roughness of the game is perhaps no more apparent than in a scramble to get it.
Courtesy Larry Brown Sports
The referees will assess whether any foul is committed, but typically pushing, shoving, grabbing, and holding often happen without notice.
The ball is live until the play is whistled dead. If an egregious act occurs, a penalty will be called, such as unnecessary roughness, such as an unfair hit on a defenseless player. Hitting or punching after the whistle is also an obvious violation.
So what happened in this case?
Jones held onto Burns (seen in the photo above) was a football play designed to keep Burns from grabbing the ball. So how does that constitute ‘a dirty play?’ It is not. Rather, what Jones did is a legitimate part of the game.
That said, hopefully, Burns’s ankle turns out to be ok, and that he’ll get back to play very soon.
The bottom line? Football is football, and the play in question is part of the game.
