Jonathan Papelbon says he was adjusting equipment, not gesturing to fans

If Jonathan Papelbon expects people to accept his excuse for grabbing his crotch and subsequently getting ejected on Sunday, he presumably also expects people to believe that Roger Goodell is telling the truth that nobody at the NFL saw the Ray Rice tape or that the dog really did eat that guy’s homework.

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Papelbon has a number of things to answer for after he lost his head and made an obscene gesture to the crowd in Philadelphia. The umpire, Cowboy Joe West, found the action to be so blatant that he ejected Papelbon. That caused the high-priced closer to flip out with anger, something that seemed to coincide with his disposition when he made the gesture in the first place.

Despite the clear visual evidence that Papelbon lost his temper and was acting out of anger, he would still have his manager Ryne Sandberg and anybody else believe that he was adjusting his equipment and not making an obscene gesture to the crowd. As passed along by Scott Miller:

Let’s not over-think things. That is the perception of Papelbon’s gesture because it is so incredibly obvious that is what he was doing. It may or may not be worthy of further disciplinary action, but it was clear what he meant.

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