Saints caught sucker punching Bucs on indefensible dirty play (Video)

Saints defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson was a the center of yet another controversial moment as he apparently punched Leonard Fournette of the Buccaneers.

The playoff battle between the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers got pretty chippy on Sunday evening.

Sometimes, it feels like you can’t spell “chippy” without C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

The Saints defensive back was involved in a bit of a scuffle and drew waves of criticism on social media when he was caught striking running back Leonard Fournette at the end of a run.

That sure looked like a kidney shot.

It’s tough to give C.J. Gardner-Johnson the benefit of the doubt

The most generous viewing of the punch is that he was aiming to jar the ball loose.

The trouble is Gardner-Johnson has a reputation. A bad one.

He’s the same Saints player who riled up his teammate, Michael Thomas, so badly he punched him in practice. Thomas ended up suspended by New Orleans for that incident.

He’s also the one that goaded Javon Wims of the Chicago Bears into taking a swipe and getting ejected.

But wait, there’s more. He was also involved in the ejection of the Bears’ Anthony Miller in the wild card round of the playoffs. Chicago head coach Matt Nagy even warned his team of the Saints’ ability to rile up opponents before the game. It didn’t help.

Gardner-Johnson’s trash talk is legendary at this point, even though he’s only been in the league for two years. He was a fourth-round pick out of Florida in the 2019 NFL Draft. He’s managed to get himself fined for his antics already.

There’s probably not enough in that clip to result in punishment for the cornerback. Since the whistle blew simultaneous to his swing, he can claim the play was still live. However, eyes will continue to follow him looking for any sort of misconduct.