The Jaguars’ punter allegedly wanted to turn an NFL game into Mortal Kombat.
Titans running back Julius Chestnut claims that Logan Cooke threatened to kill him during Jacksonville’s 25-3 road win Sunday.
The two had a pair of skirmishes during the game.
“I don’t know why the punter did that, I was just trying to play hard, and he came up to me and said he was going to kill me,” Chestnut said of his altercation with Cooke.
“So, I don’t know what made him do that.”
The skirmishes provided more entertainment than Sunday’s blowout game, with Chestnut and Cooke getting physical at multiple points in the fourth quarter.
Following a punt by Cooke in the first minute of the fourth quarter in a 25-3 game, Chestnut dropped the punter with a hard block during Chimere Dike’s 47-yard return.
Cooke underwent an evaluation for a concussion after the hit, per ESPN.
When Cooke punted again on Jacksonville’s next possession, the situation intensified.
After Chestnut stood above another Jaguars player, Cooke ran toward the running back and the two collided.
The 5-foot-11, 228-pound Chestnut grabbed the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Cooke’s jersey as players from both sides gathered around them.
Cooke received an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play, one of four penalties levied on the play, including Titans safety Mike Brown being ejected.
“I don’t think it was any frustration,” Chestnut said, “I think it was just us playing hard and me and the other guy was playing hard and I think he just wanted something to say, honestly, I have no idea.”
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He added: “I was just playing hard, he came up to me. I don’t know what made him do that. Might have been a couple plays before and I made a block on him, I don’t know what made him want to do that. That was surprising to me, I ain’t never seen nothing like that before.”
Cooke told reporters that he spoke with the referees during halftime out of concern he may have said something poorly, but did not mention the confrontation with Cooke.
Jacksonville coach Liam Coen praised Cooke and long snapper Ross Matiscik — who also earned a penalty on the play — for their competitiveness, but noted they need to keep their emotions in check.
“They had an edge, for sure. I’d like Logan to be a little smarter there on the one where he got hit on, but there there were some frustrations that were being built up with them rushing us the way they were with the long snapper issue, and we thought that we maybe were roughed or potentially roughed at one point,” Coen said. “I don’t know if it got called or not. Proud of those guys for competing but we got to continue to be smarter.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
