During Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers’ recent encounter, fans watching live witnessed something bizarre involving a player and referee. NFL referee Tony Corrente threw a ‘hip check’ on the field, causing Bears’ Cassius Marsh to run into him. As soon as contact was established, the referee tossed his flag with no hesitation. This flagrant injustice has led to ‘hip check’ becoming a trending topic on twitter.

‘Hip check’ trends on Twitter after NFL referee’s controversial call

In a strange yet hilarious clip, we witness Tony Corrente quite clearly getting in Cassius Marsh’s way, causing the Bears OLB to bump into him. Upon contact, Corrente tossed a flag onto the pitch. This came moments after another dismal refereeing decision from Corrente, who gave a 15-yard penalty to the Bears, who needed three points to level the tie.

Marsh clarified in his post-game conference that his celebration – an acrobatic high-kick following which he merely looked in the Pittsburgh dugout’s direction – was not a taunt. “I think that one was just bad timing. It’s pretty clear to everybody who saw it that I wasn’t taunting. I’ve been doing the celebration my whole career. It’s just sad to see stuff like that happen in a close game like that.”

“The one thing that I will say is that on my way to the sideline, I got hip checked by the ref. It was pretty clear. If I was to do that to a ref, or even touch a ref, we’d get kicked out of the game, possibly suspended or fined. I just think that was incredibly inappropriate.”

There’s a decent chance Marsh’s complaints would fall on deaf years. The NFL has been useless in terms of clearing the taunting rule, even though they already call fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was a big day for Cassius Marsh, activated from the practice squad earlier this week. How quickly has his week gone from being one of the best to absolutely horrible?

LeBron James reacts to horrible referee call

This incident has attracted attention from other sports as well. Lifelong NFL fan and Lakers superstar LeBron James talked about the issue on Twitter. In an angry response to a tweet from NFL legend Shannon Sharpe, LeBron wrote, “That player if the [shoe] was on the other foot would have been thrown out the game, suspended, fined and depending on the player possibly CUT from the team.”

LeBron makes a valid point and almost repeats the words said by Cassius Marsh. The implications of such behaviour would be much worse for a player instead of an NFL official or referee.

We have never witnessed a moment like this in the NFL or the sport of football. How will the league come to terms with this flagrant unprofessionalism? Will they stay quiet and let the matter resolve itself, or is this the last game Tony Corrente will ever officiate?

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