Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson expressed regret Sunday night for shoving a Buffalo Bills fan in the stands after the fan had slapped the helmets of Jackson and teammate DeAndre Hopkins as they celebrated a touchdown next to the stands at Highmark Stadium in upstate New York.
“I seen him slap D-Hop … and he slapped me and he talking, so you know I just forgot where I was for a little bit,” Jackson told reporters following the Ravens’ surprising 41-40 loss to the Bills on “Sunday Night Football”.
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“But you got to think in those situations. You have security out there. Let security handle it. But I just let my emotions get the best of me. Hopefully, it don’t happen again. I learned from that.”
In a matchup between the two most recent NFL MVPs Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen in 2024 and Jackson in 2023 Hopkins made a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch late in the third quarter to give the Ravens a 34-19 lead. Hopkins and Jackson were among a number of Baltimore players who exited the back of the end zone to celebrate the score.
As several of those players walked past the stands, a fan reached out and slapped Hopkins on the helmet, then did the same to Jackson. The four-time Pro Bowl player, who also won the league’s MVP award in 2019, responded by shoving the fan hard with both hands, which knocked the fan backward.
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The Bills reported that the fan was ejected from the game. Jackson was not disciplined during the game. The Times reached out to the NFL and the Ravens about whether Jackson might face any discipline for his role in the incident and did not receive immediate responses.
While he regrets his actions in this instance, Jackson told reporters he doesn’t see the need to stop celebrating so close to opposing fans.
“I’ve never seen our fans do that, so I’ll probably do it again [when] we score a touchdown,” Jackson said. “But it’s nothing against the fans, you know? I’m just celebrating my teammate scoring a touchdown.”
There wasn’t any celebrating to be had by the Ravens at the end of the game, however, after they squandered a 40-25 lead in the final four minutes. Allen capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keon Coleman to pull the Bills to within eight.
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Two plays later, Baltimore running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns, fumbled the ball away to give Buffalo possession on the Ravens’ 30. The Bills scored on a 1-yard Allen run but missed on the two-point conversion to trail 40-38 with 1:58 remaining.
The Ravens went three and out on the next possession, and the Bills drove 66 yards in nine plays to set up a 32-yard, game-winning field goal by Matt Prater as time expired.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.