When the Jacksonville Jaguars take the field against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Field Sunday, they will do so with the most mentioned referee of the month. According to Football Zebras, Tony Corrente and his crew has been assigned the Jags’ Week 10 game fresh after his controversial Monday Night Football call that occurred during the Chicago Bears vs. Pittsburgh Steelers matchup.
For those who missed it, Corrente has been criticized by a lot of fans after penalizing former Jags linebacker Cassius Marsh, who is now with the Bears, for taunting. The flag came after a play where Marsh sacked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for a 7-yard loss on third-and-8 around the 3:34 mark of the last quarter. As many Jags fans have seen in the past, Marsh did his signature roundhouse kick celebration after the sack, then took a few steps towards Pittsburgh’s sideline while staring that way.
Tony Corrente leaned into the contact and then held his flag toss like a walk off three pointer. What a joke pic.twitter.com/MhNlNVewJx
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) November 9, 2021
Afterward, Marsh incidentally made contact with Corrente as he was heading back to the Bears’ sideline, and a second later, Corrente flagged Marsh. Many fans and Marsh believed Corrente intentionally bumped into the veteran player to throw the flag, but Corrente came out to say the contact had nothing to do with it.
“First of all, keep in mind that taunting is a point of emphasis this year,” Corrente said after the game. “And with that said, I saw the player, after he made a big play, run toward the bench area of the Pittsburgh Steelers and posture in such a way that I felt he was taunting them.
“I didn’t judge [the contact] as anything that I dealt with. That had nothing to do with it. It was the taunting aspect.”
Regardless of what side fans take, one thing is clear, the Jags need to be careful Sunday and avoid any gestures toward the opposition. The league has made it a priority not to let taunting slide this season, so if the players in Sunday’s game aren’t careful, they may hurt the team tremendously.
While it’s unknown how many Jags have been fined for taunting, we at least know that linebacker Myles Jack and safety Rayshawn Jenkins are at least two players who’ve been hit in their pockets. Back in late September, Jack was fined $20,000 for being a little too vocal to the Houston Texans Week 1, while Jenkins received two fines ($10,300 individually) for interactions against the Miami Dolphins a few weeks back.
This season marks Corrente’s 27th in the NFL as an official. This will mark his crew’s first game of 2021 with the Jags, though they did officiate one for the Colts Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks, according to NFL Penalties. In that game, the Colts were penalized just two times for 16 yards, while Seattle was penalized several times for 53 yards. Despite that, Seattle still won the game by a score of 28-16.
Overall, Corrente’s crew has hit a penalty count of 97 penalties with his highest count of 20 being registered Week 2 when the Los Angeles Chargers took on the Dallas Cowboys. Hopefully, his crew is significantly less busy Week 10 in terms of flagging the Jags who’ve registered eight and 12 penalties during Week 8 and Week 9, respectively.