Bears' Cassius Marsh Calls Out Ref After Game for Taunting Flag

Bears player called for taunting says ref 'inappropriate' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

The Chicago Bears were undisciplined at times on Monday Night Football, leading to a bunch of penalties and extra opportunities for the Steelers. But one flag is drawing all of the postgame attention, and rightfully so.

With less than four minutes remaining in the game, and the Bears trying to mount a comeback, Cassius Marsh came through with a huge sack on 3rd-and-8. It looked like the Bears were about to get the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead, but Marsh stared down the Steelers bench and a flag was thrown. Taunting.

“I think it’s pretty clear to everybody who saw it that I wasn’t taunting,” said Marsh. “It’s just sad to see stuff like that happen in a close game like that. Just rough.”

Rough is an understatement. A few plays after the flag, the Steelers tacked on an extra field goal instead of punting. The Bears ended up losing by two points.

But it wasn’t the flag that irked Marsh the most.

“On my way to the sideline I got hip checked by the ref and it’s pretty clear,” Marsh said.

He’s not wrong, it is pretty clear. Take a look for yourself.

“If I were to do that to the ref, or even touch the ref, we’d get kicked out of the game and possibly suspended or fined,” Marsh said. “I just think that was incredibly inappropriate.

“I just think it’s unfair that he has the ability to do that with no consequence.”

There could be consequences for the ref in question, Tony Corrente, however. The league evaluates the performance of each crew after every game and can penalize them for poor performance. Those penalties can range from being excluded from postseason officiating, to firings in extreme cases.

The Bears will almost certainly send this play to the league for further review. We’ll see what the NFL has to say in response.