LJ - Unsportsmanlike Conduct, then Taunting?
 

I watched the game. LJ chased down the Samoan fellow, got a hand full of hair and made the stop. I recorded the game and cannot find any "taunting" gestures. LJ was up and had his back to this fellow and he jumped at LJ, who seemed to just ignore him.

Anybody see this different? I think the ref just figured grabbing hair was a violation and tossed the flag. He called unsportsmanlike conduct to cover his faux pax? Later, the announcer said "he meant tauting".

Sorry if this issue has been covered in another thread, looked but couldn't find anything.

I think they called taunting on LJ because he tossed Polamalu's hair back at him.

Pretty weak, IMO.

Holding the hair after tackle was clearly over was the issue IMO.

That's pretty much how I see it.

Some speculated that it was because he continued to pull as he was getting up. LJ said his hand was caught, and it looks that way to me in the video... maybe from tape on his hand or something?

Whatever it was, it didn't look malicious.

Doesn't matter anyway. He won't be fined, and it didn't change the out-come of the game.

My guess is they see Townsend over there shaming a ref into throwing a flag, they throw one for the hair tackle. The refs remind each other that it's legal and then say Unsportsmanlike conduct for the twist and jerk LJ did to get his hand out of Troy's tangled mess.

Either that or the UC call was for LJ pushing Ike Taylor after Ike gets in his face for tackling Troy like that. The refs never call the guys who crowd someone and gets in their face. It's always the player who retaliates.

it was clearly a "make up" type call.

they couldn't get him for the hair pull so they went with the generic BS taunting call.

Exactly. He wasn't flagged for pulling Polamalou down by the hair. He was flagged for continuing to hang on to it and yanking Troy back to his feet with it long after the play had ended.

Just stupidity on LJ's part.

They shouldn't have changed the call from "unsportsmanlike" though.

Look past the hair and see that LJ was in Ike Taylor's face after the play. LJ even admitted to hitting Ike twice. That's what caused the penalty.

That would certainly account for it.

I don't think so.

If you watch it, Polamalu spins when he goes down. That action probably tangled LJ's fingers into the hair, and I saw the "pulling" as him pulling his hand from the tangle.

I'll bet there are birds living in Polamalu's hair. It looks like a nasty mess.

well he hit ike taylor twice on purpose. Of course there will be no one comparing it to murder like last week.

Too bad.

You're right, it didn't make any game difference. I just felt the cascading events of the Chiefs melt-down were punctuated by this. Another post mentioned how LJ got into someone elses face. This occurs on many plays. Just watch DBs and WRs jabbering back and forth on a complete/incomplete pass. Why isn't taunting called on those plays?

Still makes me feel the refs have a hard time sorting out the good and bad intentions on the oh so changing rules shoved at them each year.

Why can't refs be fined on bad calls? Too often, there is a lame reason given by the league. Too often, their bad play calling has cost games to many teams. It is a bad enough year for the Chiefs, this just adds insult to injury.