Chase Winovich did his best to brush aside the controversy surrounding his personal foul penalty on Jimmy Garoppolo. During the New England Patriots’ 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Winovich hit Garoppolo on a Devin McCourty interception.
The moment had a few layers. Garoppolo brought the theatrics, flopping in a clear effort to draw a flag, which worked. But Winovich probably should’ve known not to touch Garoppolo, a quarterback whose smart enough to do just that. Not only did Winovich commit a personal foul penalty, but he also seemed to get into an argument with coach Bill Belichick following the play. Though Belichick said after the game that Winovich’s foul didn’t impact his play time, the outside linebacker did play his fewest snaps (13) in any game in 2020.
What did they talk about on the field?
“That’s between us, so we’re going to leave that on the field,” the New England Patriots outside linebacker said during an appearance Thursday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand.” “Yeah, (Garoppolo) obviously did flop, though. He admitted he flopped. I’m not saying that was the conversation on the field. … The play was especially bad because when (McCourty) intercepted it, where I was standing, like — obviously the guy that intercepted it was to the right. And so I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to go block the most logical guy that could actually make a play,’ because he started sprinting to the sideline. In my head, I’m like, ‘OK, he’s going to go seal it off.’ But, of course, he cut across the field and ended up on the other side.
“And so now all of a sudden, it looked like you have this poor old quarterback that’s running for his life and you got this mean bully viking warrior, just chasing him down and hucking him from behind.”
But Winovich wasn’t absolving himself from fault.
“I’m not justifying it by any means,” Winovich said. “I’ve got to be smarter and do better moving forward, no doubt. But, you know, I made a decision in the heat of the moment, and it is what it is. But to be honest, it’s football, it’s my first penalty as a professional. I’ve just got to be better and I will. That won’t happen again.”
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