{"id":923452,"date":"2026-10-07T01:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/923452\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T01:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:38:10","slug":"flags-fly-everywhere-as-nfl-suspends-a-pair-of-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/923452\/","title":{"rendered":"Flags fly everywhere as NFL suspends a pair of officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Line judge Jeff Seeman (45) works during an NFL preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and the Jacksonville Jaguars in New Orleans in August.Tyler Kaufman\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

NFL players have to show sportsmanship or they can draw flags and\/or fines and now officiating crews are on notice that they, too, must display appropriate behaviour in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n

The NFL flagged two officials Monday<\/a>, suspending line judge Jeff Seeman and referee Adrian Hill for their actions during a wild Week 4 marked by profane flare-ups that included Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy cursing at each other and Dre Greenlaw displaying the kind of fiery spirit toward Sean Payton that the Broncos head coach wished had shown up last season in Denver.<\/p>\n

Seeman was banned two games for swearing at Trey McBride after Arizona\u2019s star tight end argued for a pass interference call when he was hit by a defender before the ball arrived. Hill received a one-game suspension for unprofessional conduct for yelling at Eric Wilson and pointing for him to get away after the Minnesota Vikings linebacker tried to help him to his feet in a collision that knocked him over.<\/p>\n

The NFL Referees Association said in a statement Tuesday that the suspensions were excessive and inconsistent with past precedent and it plans to challenge the severity. <\/p>\n

\u201cNFL officials have a responsibility to conduct themselves professionally on the field, and the actions in these incidents fell short of that standard,\u201d NFLRA executive director Scott Green said. \u201cAccountability matters, but that should not result in discipline that is excessive or inconsistent with established precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenlaw confronts former coach <\/p>\n

Greenlaw, who rejoined the Niners last off-season, forced a fumble and collected a dozen tackles in San Francisco\u2019s 24-14 win over the Broncos on Sunday. <\/p>\n

After just about every one of his stops, he pointed and hollered at Payton, assuredly still stinging over his departure from Denver in which he said his agent had to inform him the Broncos were moving on just one year into his three-year, US$31.5-million deal.<\/p>\n

As Payton was walking across the field to shake Kyle Shanahan\u2019s hand after the game, Greenlaw approached him and took one more verbal shot at his old coach as fellow linebacker Fred Warner redirected him toward the 49ers\u2019 tunnel.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw looks to make a play during a game against the Arizona Cardinals in Santa Clara, Calif. last month.Scot Tucker\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Payton didn\u2019t engage with Greenlaw, who told the San Francisco Chronicle, \u201cI told him to get the [expletive] off the field. That\u2019s it: \u2019Get the [expletive] off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he had any issue with Greenlaw getting in his face Sunday, Payton said, \u201cNo, and I said this to Kyle afterwards, I think the world of him. I really love everything about him and he plays with that emotion. So, it\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy expresses regret for use of profanity <\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s all good in Pittsburgh, too.<\/p>\n

McCarthy expressed regret for profanity he used toward Rodgers that was caught on the Thursday night broadcast of Pittsburgh\u2019s 27-24 loss to Cleveland. <\/p>\n

Midway through the first quarter, a flustered Rodgers was shown looking at Pittsburgh\u2019s sideline and yelling, \u201cWhat the [expletive]? Call it!\u201d The camera then cut to McCarthy, who muttered a profanity in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunication sometimes is not the best choice of words, but everybody\u2019s competing on the field,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI think what\u2019s said on the field, the way I grew up in this game, usually stays on the field. That\u2019s not the case today. I understand that. But any negative communication on my part, I wish I wouldn\u2019t use those words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers said the crowd noise made it difficult to communicate at times, noting, \u201cIt was a good crowd. It was loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hot mic saw to it that Rodgers\u2019s message to McCarthy was loud and clear and any amateur lip reader could also clearly decipher the head coach\u2019s response to his quarterback who spent 13 seasons with him in Green Bay.<\/p>\n

Week 4 incidents stood out <\/p>\n

Players yelling at the sidelines \u2013 even their own \u2013 is nothing new. <\/p>\n

Neither are heated exchanges between players and officials. <\/p>\n

But these four stood out, especially because they were caught on camera and quickly raced across social media, not the kind of viral moments the NFL prefers. <\/p>\n

McBride knew Seeman\u2019s vulgarity was being broadcast \u2013 he pointed toward the camera that caught the line judge\u2019s obscenities.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you hate to see it, for obvious reasons,\u201d Arizona coach Mike LaFleur said. \u201cI do want to give the man a little bit of grace, too. I know Jeff. He\u2019s a good man. It\u2019s unfortunate it happened. It can\u2019t happen, obviously, and I\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident drew the ire of players union leader JC Tretter, a retired offensive lineman who played eight seasons in the NFL: \u201cThis kind of behaviour from an official towards a player is unacceptable,\u201d Tretter, the NFL Players Association\u2019s executive director, posted on social media along with a video clip of the incident. \u201cPlayers are consistently held accountable when the roles are reversed. We expect the NFL to hold officials to the same standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell lamented the official\u2019s reaction in the Miami-Minnesota game where Wilson was only trying to help Hill to his feet after he got knocked into the referee, who fell down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s one of those situations in kind of a high-energy moment there,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cI think stuff like that can happen sometimes, but I don\u2019t have any major concerns, and I think Adrian\u2019s a really good official and does a really good job. I think that was just kind of fast [a] moment that happened, and we can put it behind us, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league flagged its own officials to make sure that happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Line judge Jeff Seeman (45) works during an NFL preseason game between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,514,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-923452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nfl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}