Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson expressed remorse Sunday night time for shoving a Buffalo Payments fan within the stands after the fan had slapped the helmets of Jackson and teammate DeAndre Hopkins as they celebrated a landing subsequent to the stands at Highmark Stadium in upstate New York.
“I seen him slap D-Hop … and he slapped me and he speaking, so you realize I simply forgot the place I used to be for a bit bit,” Jackson informed reporters following the Ravens’ shocking 41-40 loss to the Payments on “Sunday Evening Soccer”.
“However you bought to assume in these conditions. You’ve gotten safety on the market. Let safety deal with it. However I simply let my feelings get the very best of me. Hopefully, it don’t occur once more. I realized from that.”
In a matchup between the 2 most up-to-date NFL MVPs — Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen in 2024 and Jackson in 2023 — Hopkins made a spectacular one-handed landing catch late within the third quarter to provide the Ravens a 34-19 lead. Hopkins and Jackson have been amongst various Baltimore gamers who exited the again of the tip zone to rejoice the rating.
As a number of of these gamers walked previous the stands, a fan reached out and slapped Hopkins on the helmet, then did the identical to Jackson. The four-time Professional Bowl participant, who additionally received the league’s MVP award in 2019, responded by shoving the fan arduous with each palms, which knocked the fan backward.
The Payments reported that the fan was ejected from the sport. Jackson was not disciplined in the course of the sport. The Instances reached out to the NFL and the Ravens about whether or not Jackson would possibly face any self-discipline for his function within the incident and didn’t obtain fast responses.
Whereas he regrets his actions on this occasion, Jackson informed reporters he doesn’t see the necessity to cease celebrating so near opposing followers.
“I’ve by no means seen our followers do this, so I’ll in all probability do it once more [when] we rating a landing,” Jackson stated. “However it’s nothing towards the followers, you realize? I’m simply celebrating my teammate scoring a landing.”
There wasn’t any celebrating available by the Ravens on the finish of the sport, nevertheless, after they squandered a 40-25 lead within the closing 4 minutes. Allen capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 10-yard landing cross to Keon Coleman to drag the Payments to inside eight.
Two performs later, Baltimore operating again Derrick Henry, who rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns, fumbled the ball away to provide Buffalo possession on the Ravens’ 30. The Payments scored on a 1-yard Allen run however missed on the two-point conversion to path 40-38 with 1:58 remaining.
The Ravens went three and out on the subsequent possession, and the Payments drove 66 yards in 9 performs to arrange a 32-yard, game-winning area aim by Matt Prater as time expired.
