Referee Tony Corrente attempts to explain questionable taunting flag on Bears OLB Cassius Marsh

Tony Corrente explained the questionable taunting penalty of Bears OLB Cassius Marsh.

The Chicago Bears lost a heartbreaker to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football, where poor officiating was the storyline of the game.

There were a number of questionable calls against the Bears — who had 12 accepted penalties for 115 yards — but arguably none more puzzling than a phantom taunting call on outside linebacker Cassius Marsh, which led to a Steelers field goal and ultimately decided the game.

Marsh, the former Steeler, sacked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger late in the fourth quarter. He appeared to walk toward the Steelers sideline before turning around and jogging back to the Bears sideline, and he was called for taunting, a call that the entire NFL world was puzzled by.

Official Tony Corrente, who is going to come under a lot of criticism following his unit’s horrid performance, attempted to explain himself.

“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,” Corrente told Adam Hoge.

When you watch the replay of when Marsh jogged back to the Bears sideline, Corrente appears to hip check Marsh — which Marsh called “inappropriate” — and then proceeded to throw the flag. Corrente denied that the contact contributed to the penalty being called.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I didn’t judge that as anything that I dealt with.”

Really? Because the flag was thrown right after Corrente appeared to hip checked Marsh.

“That had nothing to do with it,” Corrente reiterated. “It was the taunting aspect.”

The new taunting rule has been a controversial one since its implementation in Week 1, and it’s reasons like this — which ultimately gifted the Steelers a field goal and cost the Bears a potential win — why this rule should fall by the wayside after this season.

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