Ramsey ejected for punch, says Chase spit on him

PITTSBURGH — Steelers defensive back Jalen Ramsey was ejected for throwing a punch at Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase after Chase appeared to spit at the safety with a little more than 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh’s 34-12 victory Sunday.

After the game, Ramsey was adamant Chase spit on him before he threw the punch. A field-level view captured by FOX 19 WXIX-TV shows spit coming out of Chase’s mouth just before Ramsey threw the punch.

«He spit on me,» Ramsey said. «I don’t give a f— about football after that, respectfully. I’m always going to be all for trash talking, s— talking, things like that. I actually enjoy that part of the game. I think that people know that. … We were talking s—, which I’m cool with. And then as soon as he spit, it was f— that. … I’m sure the NFL, they’ll do their due diligence. They’ve got 100 cameras out there. They can investigate. They can see everything. … They should be able to pull it up and see that he spit and it’s whatever after that, to be honest. I was still a little too nice if I’m keeping it honest with you.»

Chase, however, denied Ramsey’s accusation.

«I ain’t ever opened my mouth to that guy,» Chase told reporters. «I didn’t spit on nobody.»

Chase, asked what prompted Ramsey’s reaction, said: «Well he don’t like some of the words I told him. We’ve been going back and forth the whole time. So I’m sure something got under his skin.»

The NFL will be reviewing the incident between Ramsey and Chase, a league spokesman told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

In the pool report, referee Bill Vinovich said the game officials did not see Chase spit on Ramsey.

«No. Obviously, we did not,» he said. «We did not see anything that rose to that level at all.»

Ramsey and Chase were both flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on third-and-1 a play earlier when Ramsey said Chase tried to crackback block him. The two had been going back and forth all game.

«We had just talked to the refs,» Ramsey said. «I ain’t going to do something again to get myself kicked out of the game. The refs had just told us a play before. If you just use your common sense, you’ll know, hey he wasn’t just doing it again for no reason. You know what I mean?»

After the first unsportsmanlike penalties, the two continued to jaw at each other as the Bengals took a timeout before running their fourth-and-1 play. Once Chase appeared to spit at the Steelers safety, Ramsey threw the punch and was promptly ejected for his second unsportsmanlike penalty in as many snaps. Ramsey was escorted off the field by a Steelers staffer. Offensive lineman Broderick Jones tried to calm Ramsey down before the defensive back entered the locker room.

The ejection came shortly after Ramsey shifted back to slot corner with Brandin Echols dealing with an injury. Ramsey started the game at safety but moved to fill in for Echols, and Chuck Clark came in at safety. The Steelers were playing the game without starting cornerback Darius Slay, who is in the concussion protocol.

Before Sunday, Ramsey had only been ejected one previous time in his career, in 2017 when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars and was also facing the Bengals.