One of the most glaring bad calls in Super Bowl XLVII, which inexplicably didn’t draw much attention during the CBS broadcast, came when Ravens defensive back Cary Williams applied a two-handed shove to an official after early-game chippiness erupted into a full-blown brouhaha.
Williams was neither flagged nor ejected. Both should have happened.
The looming free agent recently addressed the situation during a visit with our pals The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in D.C.
“It was in the moment, man,” Williams said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “It was one of those situations where you let your emotions get the best of you. As far as I’m concerned, I remember my helmet getting ripped off by No. 49 or whatever, and I just reacted. I didn’t see the ref; I didn’t realize he was there. I just pushed whoever to try to get to him.
“I just think that with the Baltimore Ravens, I feel like we play aggressively but we play between the whistles. There was a lot of things that was going on outside of the whistles or whatever, and it was frustrating. But at the end of the day, it happened. The ref saw that I wasn’t trying to intentionally get him or hurt him or harm him in any way, and I think he played it the right way. He made the right call, he made the right decision.”
But he didn’t make the right call. And he didn’t make the right decision. Williams should have been flagged, and he should have been ejected. There’s simply no discretion in the rule book on that point.
At a minimum, Williams can expect to be fined.
“The league hasn’t contacted me,” Williams said. “I don’t know if I need to contact them or whatever, but it’s a situation . . . and I just gotta deal with that. So whenever it comes, I gotta cross that bridge when we get there.”
Don’t worry, Cary. They know where to find you. And find you they will.