C.J. Gardner-Johnson earned an ejection shortly before halftime of the Buffalo Bills’ 33-30 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
And while a lot of fans may have been surprised to see him spit in Brock Bowers’ direction, one interested party was not.
MORE: Bills’ CJ Gardner-Johnson spits on Raiders’ Brock Bowers, gets ejected
Shortly after the incident ,San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszyzcyk quickly revealed that he had been the victim of a different CJGJ loogie last season.
“This is the least surprising thing ever,” he wrote. “@CGJXXIII spit on me last year when we beat Chicago”
Juszyzcyk makes allegation about previous incident
The Niners play on Monday Night Football so Juszyzcyk was able to quickly disseminate this additional context. Some would say he’s just fanning the flames or throwing gas on a fire. Others would perhaps correctly conclude that you’re allowed to do whatever you want if someone spits in you.
Gardner-Johnson is expected to face additional punishment from the league because they simply cannot have players spitting on each other. It will be interesting to see if it’s seen as a trend and not an isolated incident now that a second player has spoken up.
For what it’s worth, Gardner-Johnson did offer an apology for the behavior.
“My passion and competitive nature have always been a huge part of who I am, but I also understand that there is a line that should never be crossed,” he wrote on Instagram. “The gesture I made toward my opponent was inappropriate, unnecessary, and not a reflection of the respect I have for him or this game.”
“One moment does not define my character,” CJGJ continued. “But how I respond to that moment matters. I will learn from this, grow from it, and continue to lead with the integrity, passion, and respect that have carried me throughout my career.”
Look, no one is going to argue that spitting on someone is a good thing. It would be surprising if the league did not hand down a multi-game suspension. Yet it does matter if the offender in question has spit at or on players before, as Juszyzcyk’s post suggests. That doesn’t make it an outlier. It’s more of a pattern at that point.
Surely the NFL will get to the bottom of all this, even if it requires sifting through some social media.
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