Benny Snell of Kentucky got ejected from a bowl game for refusing a ref’s offer to help him up

Hey kids, apparently if a ref offers you his hands to get up after being knocked down, you better accept them or you’re getting kicked out of the game.

All right-minded people are in favor of good sportsmanship, and touching a referee is something that every athlete understands is a no-no. But referees need to use their heads too, and they did Kentucky running back Benny Snell Jr. wrong in the Music City Bowl.

At the end of a play in which several Northwestern players tackled Snell hard along the sideline — and took him to the ground after the whistle had already blown — one of the referees appeared to reach his hands down to help him up. Snell did not want the ref’s assistance, and kind of pushed his hands away.

It wasn’t an aggressive move toward the ref, nor would it have happened if the official himself hadn’t made the first move. Incredibly, Snell was ejected from the game, with the explanation given that he it was for “contact with the official.” Technically, that’s true, since some parts of them did touch.

But no one except maybe that official thought it was deserved, and Twitter, as you might guess, was unamused.

It was also noted by some that it wasn’t just any player who got tossed from the game, but the heartbeat of the Kentucky offense and one of the leading rusher sin the SEC. Snell’s ejection can and very well might change the outcome of the game.

Again, we’re all for the safety of officials and respecting the men and women in stripes. Their job is often thankless. But common sense has to be applied to situations like this, especially since Snell was not endangering the official in any way. It was a horrendous call, is properly being denounced by just about everyone, and hopefully doesn’t take away from the experience both teams are having at the Music City Bowl.