Emmanuel Forbes was ejected early in Sunday’s loss in Seattle for a head shot on Tyler Lockett, and in discussing the ejection with Nicki Jhbavala as the pool reporter after the game, NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Walt Anderson said that a review in New York determined Forbes went straight for the head and not to make a play on the ball, warranting the ejection.
Forbes himself disagreed, as evidence by this quote recorded by JP Finlay after the game:
Jay Gruden agrees, telling Chris Russell Monday he “absolutely” would have lost his mind.
“Yeah, I actually would have, I don’t think it was intentional at all. I think there has to be some intent to it,” Gruden said. “He wasn't going in to try to headhunt a guy, he was trying to go in and make a play, and it just happened to be a bang-bang play where the receiver went down and he went down at the same time. I think maybe a penalty would have been a good call, but ejection, I don't think was necessary.”
Rooster said “I think everybody universally agrees it’s definitely a penalty, it’s the ejection nobody quite understands,” but alas, what’s done is done.
And Gruden doubled down on it all when he visited Grant & Danny hours later.
“I’ve seen many worse shots than that for ejections, but the guys weren’t ejected. I don't know how these referees are calling it,” Gruden said. “It’s a bang-bang play and the receiver ducked his head at the last second. Emmanuel is going for the ball to try to get the ball out of the receiver’s hands and hit heads with him. Definitely been a penalty, but not an objection, in my opinion.”
That’s when Jay gave the guys some insight on what he would tell players in that situation, as the NFL really began a crackdown on head-to-head hits while Gruden was in DC.
“You gotta try to break the pass up or get the receiver on the ground. Sometimes the quarterback should be fine for throwing the ball into a coverage where the safety can hit you hard across the middle,” Gruden said. “I remember Brandon Meriweather got suspended for two games in a preseason game against the Ravens when Joe Flacco threw a slant route in quarters – you can't throw a slant route in quarters, you're gonna get the receiver killed. Sure enough he did, and Meriweather got suspended for two games, and that hurt us for the first two games. So, I don't know what to tell them. You just try to tell them to do the best they can, play football but try to try to keep your head up keep your head away from their head. That’s the only thing you can tell them.”