Detroit Lions linebacker Jamie Collins was the first ejection of the 2020 season after headbutting an official.
It took less than a half of football to get our first ejection of the season.
Jamie Collins was booted from the Bears-Lions game in the second quarter after head-butted a referee following a play. You read that right, head-butted an official — and casually head-butted him at that.
It was phenomenally stupid, even if it wasn’t entirely on purpose.
#Lions LB Jamie Collins was ejected for making contact with a referee. Looks like he was trying to demonstrate what a #Bears player did to him. pic.twitter.com/vyqNV94dsB
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 13, 2020
Colins did headbutt the official, but sounds more malicious than it actually was. Collins was trying to demonstrate what a Bears player did to him but apparently didn’t give the official enough of a heads up of what was going on.
The loss of Collins is pretty significant since the Lions were already missing a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball. Kenny Golladay was ruled inactive before the game which took a major player off the board for the Lions hopes of walking away with more than they did in their last season opener.
Then again, a tie is a pretty low bar to clear even without your top reciever.
Collins is a key cog fo the Lions defense, and more importantly, is a former Patriots star. Imagine Bill Belichick watching one of his players head butt a referee, no matter what the context of it is. Something like that simply doesn’t happen under the watch of a head coach that knows what he’s doing — something Matt Patricia has proven time and time again he does not.
It’s all on Collins for head-butting an official and thinking it’s okay but it’s all a part of a larger system in Detroit where the very idea of such a thing is something that doesn’t get second-guessed in the mind of a player.