National Football League

Suspend Your Disbelief

Updated Nov. 2, 2020 8:37 p.m. ET

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The New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears faced off in a Week 7 matchup that lived up to its billing, but the biggest story of the game came after a blown whistle.

Instead, it was the scuffle between Bears wide receiver Javon Wims and Saints cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson that had the NFL world talking.

In the third quarter of the contest, the two players got into it when Gardner-Johnson snatched Wims mouthpiece from his helmet. A few minutes later, Wims retaliated, throwing multiple punches to the head of Gardner-Johnson.

Wims was ejected from the game following the altercation. And on Monday, the NFL announced that Wims would be suspended two games for throwing the punches.

With the ruling coming down, FOX Sports' own rules experts and former heads of officiating, Dean Blandino and Mike Pereira, weighed in on the incident.

While Gardner-Johnson wasn't suspended, Pereira believes he is the true instigator of this situation.

"The play before, he went up to Anthony Miller and stuck a finger inside of his mask. There is a lot that has been said about what has started this, but certainly you saw that he stuck a finger in Miller's face mask. I kind of felt this was a retaliation to that. Now, that's a wrong retaliation, you can't throw a punch like that, you have to maintain some poise there. But there is always something leading up to it."

Pereira also believes that this two-game suspension signals the league drawing a hard line on fighting on the field.

"It's obvious they put this into a different category, a non-football act, a fight, and a fight they are going to deal with stronger [than football-related plays]. And we have seen it now in the last couple of weeks where there have been these skirmishes that have broken out on the field. And I think in COVID times and all of this kind of stuff, the league is taking a stronger stance."

Wims maintains that the reason he went after Gardner-Johnson was because the Saints cornerback spit on him.

Regardless of what caused the fight, Gardner-Johnson has a way of getting under the skin of wide receivers.

Look no further than when he and his teammate, All-Pro wide receiver Michael Thomas, got into a fight a few weeks ago at practice.

Wims might have landed a few punches, but it appears as if Gardner-Johnson got the last laugh here.

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