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Referee Does Not Appreciate Soft Headbutt Demonstration, Ejects Jamie Collins

Lions defender Jamie Collins Sr. lowers his helmet and headbutts a referee in the shoulder

There aren't a ton of cameras at the NFL games this week due to coronavirus regulations, but there were enough at today's Bears-Lions game to capture Bears running back David Montgomery jamming his head into the belly of Lions defender Jamie Collins Sr. The referee did not see this, however, and when Collins tried to explain to the ref what had happened, he opted to use actions instead of words.

That was a mistake!

What Collins did was a something thespians call "blocking," an enactment of a scene without all of its energy or full performance. He became his own replay, in full color, live. He walked up to the referee, lowered his head, and gently tapped the very tippy top of his helmet into the pec muscle of the referee. It got him ejected from the game.

Listen, I'm an older sister, I understand this deep and unfair pain. Once, my younger sister gave me a terrible rope burn on my arm because I refused to help her climb into a very high tree because I was tall and mean. I then demonstrated this rope burn on my mother's arm and she got very mad at me! In retrospect, this was fair. I should have simply rope-burned my sister back in front of my mother so she could have seen what happened without personal injury. Would this have helped my case? Absolutely not. But at least my sister's arm would have also hurt.

All of this to say that were I Jamie Collins Sr., I simply would have grabbed David Montgomery as a demonstration dummy. Sure, he still would have gotten ejected, but he could have found his own justice.

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