Cardinals running back Emani Demercado fumbled before crossing the goal line, negating a 72-yard touchdown run.
Coach Jonathan Gannon was seen berating and appearing to strike Demercado on the sideline after the mistake.
The incident drew comparisons to how Colts coach Shane Steichen handled a similar blunder by receiver Adonai Mitchell a week prior.
Go ahead, induct Emani Demercado into the Hall of Shame for the disastrous gaffe on Sunday that went a long way toward another L for the Arizona Cardinals.
Surely, the third-year running back had to feel terrible about casually flipping the football to the turf before crossing the goal line – Fumble! Touchback! – that wiped out a would-be 72-yard TD run. He joins the likes of Leon Lett, DeSean Jackson, Jonathan Taylor, Danny Trevathon and others, including Indianapolis Colts receiver Adonai Mitchell, who just a week earlier committed a similar blunder.
Yet the teaching moments from this faux pas don’t start and end with Demercado.
Did you see the reaction of Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon?
Not only did Gannon berate Demercado on the sideline, he appeared to strike the player in his midsection, which would be crossing the line in a most shameful way.
Gannon revealed quite the leadership flaw in making a bad mistake even worse by going ballistic. If it’s proven what it looked like, that he in fact put his hands on Demercado during his tirade, the NFL – cracking down this season on player taunting and crass gestures in TD celebrations, in the name of sportsmanship – should be consistent in its messaging and drop the hammer on Gannon as a statement about unacceptable workplace behavior.
And I’d think the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), which typically stands up for its membership in a wide range of matters, would be appalled by the incident.
In 2022, the league fined then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians $50,000 for slapping his safety, Andrew Adams, on the helmet as he reacted to a melee on the field during an NFC wild card playoff game against the Eagles. So, there’s some precedent.
Granted, coaches (and players) have erupted with heated in-your-face exchanges for decades. But if there was indeed a body blow, it goes to another level. And remember: The NFL legislates the sidelines just as much as the field on game days. If it can fine Arians, dock 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa for photo-bombing a postgame national TV interview while wearing a MAGA hat (days before the 2024 election, drawing an $11,255 fine for a uniform violation) and was moved to discipline Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro for using a cellphone on the sideline during a preseason game (it fined “Big Dom” a whopping $75,000 for the violation committed in August), then the Cardinals coach is clearly in the league’s jurisdictional range for some action.
Sure, Gannon apologized to Demercado and to the team during a meeting on Monday, saying he woke up on the day after “and didn’t feel great about it.”
What bad optics. In public. From the head coach, the so-called leader of men.
“Obviously, I tried to be emotionally stable and calm, because my job is to solve problems during a game and kind of lead the charge on that,” Gannon said during a Monday press conference. “So, it’s not really who I am or who I want to be, and I told the guys that today. So, it’s a mistake by me. It’s just like everybody in there. Everybody made some type of mistake yesterday, which culminates into why we didn’t win the game. And we can’t let it happen moving forward.”
Lessons for all, indeed, from a debacle that saw the Cards blow a 15-point fourth-quarter lead.
Want real leadership from Cardinals? Look to Paris Johnson, Jr.
It was ironic that as Gannon charged toward Demercado, the running back was being consoled by left tackle Paris Johnson, Jr. Johnson, a former first-round pick, and Demercado were in the same rookie class in 2023.
Gannon, it turns out, should have taken a cue from Johnson, who apparently carries 313 pounds of leadership on his 6-foot, 6-inch frame.
“I wanted to be one of the first people to find him on the sideline, to tell him, ‘Hey, wipe it off. Let’s keep going,’ ” Johnson told reporters afterward. “I just wanted to make sure that he heard that from somebody up front and he’s not catching looks and stares and people mumbling left and right. I didn’t want him to hear any of that, be around any of that. I didn’t want to create that energy around him, you know.”
And then Gannon came in for a blow up. Some energy.
Sure, it’s professional football, not Pop Warner. Adversity happens. Blowups can ignite. Coaches can get salty. Ask anybody who ever played for (my man) Bill Parcells, including a frequent target, Phil Simms. Late in his career on his final stop with the Dallas Cowboys, Parcells had a dust-up with Antonio Bryant during a practice session. After the receiver took off his pads and jersey and proceeded to leave practice, Parcells reportedly picked up the gear and threw it at Bryant and said something to the effect that he still had a good fight left in him.
No, old-school Parcells would not have taken kindly to Demercado’s mistake.
For Colts, Adonai Mitchell’s goalline blunder a teaching moment
Then again, Colts coach Shane Steichen – who coached with Gannon on Nick Sirianni’s staff with the Eagles before landing a head coaching job – seemingly handled Mitchell’s mishap in textbook fashion for this day and age. Steichen had a one-on-one meeting with Mitchell, who was also flagged for a holding penalty that wiped out a 53-yard TD run from Taylor in the Colts’ Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Steichen had Mitchell open the next-day team meeting by taking accountability yet also let the emerging wideout know that his big blunder – Mitchell lost the grip on the ball as he stretched out before crossing the goal line for a 75-yard TD – would not be his defining moment. Well said.
Still, Mitchell, and now Demercado, provided fresh material for a “gaffe reel” that every coach in the NFL should show its players about what not to do as you approach the goal line with an apparent TD.
You’d think pro athletes would know better by now. But the fact that these cases of premature celebrations or casual flips of the football keep happening suggests that not everybody has, well, received the memo.
After all, a week after Mitchell’s misfortune, who would have thought that another electric touchdown would be doused by some foolishness from Demercado?
Hey, just know the NFL schedule-makers have struck again. The Cardinals take their three-game losing streak to Indianapolis this weekend. Anybody for a photo op? Demercado and Mitchell will be on the same field. And their coaches, too.
Remember, a boneheaded mistake is one thing. What also matters is how you react.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell; On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social
