CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Luke Kuechly was ejected from Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers for contacting an official and now the NFL has confirmed that the official who ejected Kuechly made an error.
The NFL has informed Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera that linebacker Luke Kuechly should not have been ejected for inadvertent contact with an official in Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, league sources told ESPN’s Ed Werder.
Chase Blackburn, the Panthers’ player representative, suggested that the NFL should issue a statement regarding the matter and that is essentially what they have done.
With 1:39 left in the third quarter, Kuechly was involved in a pile up after a fumble. A Packers’ player first attempted to pull Kuechly from the pile and then as Kuechly removed himself from the fracas, back judge Steve Freeman grabbed Kuechly’s arm from behind prompting Kuechly to swing his arm free from Freeman’s grasp. Freeman then threw a penalty flag and ejected Kuechly, drawing the ire of Panthers’ fans and coach Ron Rivera.
“I disagreed with it,” Rivera said. “I disagreed with the explanation I was given. I looked at the tape and I felt the tape agreed with what I felt.”
Kuechly says the contact was unintentional.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know who was grabbing me,” he said after the game. “I was trying to get out of there a little bit. You’ve just got to stay calm in those situations and just walk away and let it take care of itself.”
The league also said that Kuechly will not be fined. A player who makes contact with an official could be fined $27,562
