Chauncey Gardner-Johnson was Ejected After "Basically Taunting the Opponent on the Second Foul"
CJGJ flipped the Landover crowd the double-birds as he was walking off the field Sunday, ejected from the game after a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. According to the pool report, that infraction was because of taunting:
Pool report with referee Shawn Smith that I just spoke about on @JAKIBSports post-game show pic.twitter.com/WNymcNVGGK
— John McMullen (@JFMcMullen) December 22, 2024
“He’s basically taunting the opponent on the second foul. He already had a first one earlier in the game that we had announced as his first towards disqualification. So, this became his second. He was taunting the players so that’s a disqualification by rule.”
The pool reporter goes on to ask what happened on the first penalty, which you can see here:
C.J. Gardner-Johnson is the only guy whose trash talk is so nasty he can get punched in the face and the ref STILL flags him and not the guy doing the punching pic.twitter.com/UBB2JoJQZg
— Christian D’Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 22, 2024
Explanation: “well, we only had the one foul.”
Alright. It must have been the world’s worst taunting to earn a second unsportsmanlike, and the ejection. What do we think he said? “Yo mama is so fat, her belt is the equator!” Something like that, perhaps.
We go to the well of “more than one thing can be true.” It appears as though CJGJ got hosed here, but he’s also gotta chill out a little bit. Try to read the room. Milton Williams was flagged earlier for a fugazi shove on Jayden Daniels, and Jalen Carter got a similarly-bad whistle for pushing a Washington lineman. If you see that the refs are out of control and throwing ticky-tack flags, then you gotta recognize that and pull it back a bit. CJGJ’s ejection put Tristin McCollum in the game, who then gave up a touchdown in the second half. That was with Darius Slay already out and Isaiah Rodgers forced into the game. CJ getting tossed had a significant negative impact on the defense.
The refs were all over the place on Sunday. They threw a ridiculous flag for a hit on Kenny Pickett that wasn’t even close to being illegal, then picked it up. They flagged Marshon Lattimore for DPI, then swallowed the whistle when he was draped all over A.J. Brown in the end zone, and that was before the other DB came in high with his helmet. Both teams were receiving ridiculous flags.