Russell Shepard

Ron Rivera accuses Buccaneers of 'bush league' video board stunt

Published Jan. 2, 2017 11:23 a.m. ET

Cameron DaSilva

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera was not happy after Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for more reasons than one. It was an otherwise meaningless game for the Panthers, but no one was laying down with nothing on the line. They were still playing hard, going for the win in the season finale.

Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis may have been playing a bit too hard, as the Bucs' video board showed after one particular play. He laid out Buccaneers receiver Russell Shepard in what was a seemingly dirty play. However, he was simply following the rules by hitting a receiver after the quarterback escaped the pocket.

Rivera was fine with the hit, but he definitely wasn’t OK with the Buccaneers’ video-board operator replaying it twice in slow motion.

“Well, first of all I think that’s bush league, to show that play up on the screen,” Rivera said, via the Charlotte Observer. “What are we trying to incite here? Let’s don’t do that. That’s got no place in the NFL, as far as I’m concerned.

“TD did something that, the guy scrambles around and he saw Jameis break through. So at that point you can eliminate receivers. I wish it didn’t happen, but that’s a part of the game. But I really do mean that. I don’t think you put that type of play up on the screen. I don’t think that’s right.”

The hit didn’t draw a flag from the officials because, well, it was 100 percent legal. However, in the moments after the play was over, the crowd was unhappy. Boos rained down on the Panthers, clearly giving the Buccaneers more of a home-field advantage. Not that doing so is illegal by any means, but inciting the crowd to boo a completely legal play is “bush-league” by Rivera’s standards.

Even the officials didn’t think it was a dirty play, telling Davis as much afterward.

“Yeah, obviously the home team, they’re gonna try to make an issue of it. I talked to the ref about it on the field, and he said it was a ‘nothing play.’ ”

“It wasn’t even a hard hit, a malicious hit,” Davis said. “It wasn’t helmet-to-helmet. ... I talked to him after the game, we talked it out and he understood what I saw. He kind of saw the same thing that I saw. He saw the quarterback look at him. At the end of the day it wasn’t a dirty play.”

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