During the 26-17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, one key piece of the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line was ejected from the game. 5x Pro Bowler Trai Turner was ejected from Sunday's game after an apparent spitting incident with a Raiders player.
With 11:15 left in the 4th quarter, after a 25-yard touchdown run by rookie running back Najee Harris, Turner got into an altercation with linebacker Marquel Lee. During the course of the touchdown run, pushing each other turned into a viral video of Turner spitting on Lee. Both players were given unsportsmanlike penalties. Since both teams were given these penalties, they offset. Unfortunately for the Steelers however, Turner was seen spitting on Lee and this is the reason that although both players got the same penalty, only one got ejected.
Looks to me like Trai Turner spits at the Raiders toward the end of this replay pic.twitter.com/lvO0F1kGuC
— 2022 Jim (@SportsingJim) September 19, 2021
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During the game, Tomlin was arguing back and forth with the officiating crew, begging them to take another look at what happened and questioned why Lee was not ejected as well.
According to Turner after the game, relayed by Tomlin, he was not the one who initiated the spitting. As reported by multiple sources including Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Lee spit into Turner's face, according to coach Tomlin. Tomlin went on to say that Turner is "actually a flat-liner" when it comes to these situations and it is extremely unlikely for Turner to react in such an extreme way. This is part of the reason why Tomlin originally reacted with such aggression during the game earlier that day. As an NFL veteran, Turner has been in these types of situations before and has not been known to react like this unless he was provoked. He just does not start spitting on people out of nowhere, that's not how he operates.
As of right now, Turner has put out a tweet stating, "Thank you Mike T" which is most definitely in reference to his coach standing up for him and defending one of his players.
Thank you Mike T.
— Trai Turner (@trai_turner) September 19, 2021
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Also, there has been no word of what the league office has in store for both players as the story has now progressed to both sides pointing fingers at each other. If you have a chance, watch the videos of the incident and judge it for yourself!
If you did see this happen live or at a later time, what are your thoughts on the matter? Should both players be penalized or fined for this? If it does come out that one side is lying and the other initiated the fight, will that have repercussions by the league office in terms of fines? Comment below!
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