As in The Lord of the Rings, where the ‘Great Eye’ sees all of Middle Earth, the NFL’s version of the ‘Great Eye’ is the camera crew, which sees everything on a football field. There are hundreds of cameras covering every inch of the field during every game. Which makes lying about something you did, like Ja’Marr Chase did in the midst of the latest ‘spit-gate’ controversy, all the more… let’s call it silly.
Advertisement
Chase had been getting into altercations with Pittsburgh Steelers DB Jalen Ramsey all afternoon during his team’s 34-12 loss on Sunday. Ramsey laid a big hit on Chase early on, and the two jawed back and forth a few times. One exchange led to facemask grabbing, pushing, and shoving, resulting in offsetting penalties.
The last straw came when Ramsey punched and grabbed Chase’s facemask again, getting himself ejected. At the time, it gave the Cincinnati Bengals a fresh set of downs and seemed done for no reason. But after further review of the sideline video, Ramsey had a very good reason indeed.
@NFL Jamarr Chase clearly spitting on Jalen Ramsey #Steelers #Bengals pic.twitter.com/V23OSCpYQC
— Chip Skylark (@use_your_logic1) November 16, 2025
The video shows Chase hocking up a massive loogie and spitting it at Ramsey. It’s as clear as the blue sky on a sunny day. No room for interpretation. Ramsey confirmed it too in the post-game interview that he was spit on, noting, “He spit on me, so it’s up, I don’t give a f*ck about football at that point, respectfully.”
And it’s hard not to take Ramsey’s side here. Especially after Chase blatantly lied in the postgame locker room, saying he didn’t spit on “nobody.” Deep fake videos aren’t that good yet, Ja’Marr!
The All-Pro wideout was predictably suspended for his actions later on. He got a one-game ban, same as Philadelphia Eagles DT Jalen Carter, who received a similar punishment for a similar crime earlier this year.
Amazingly, Chase is still appealing the suspension despite the inscrutable evidence. And this has led many, like Emmanuel Acho, to question whether giving up just one game check is a sufficient deterrent for something as vile as spitting on someone.
“This little fine, one game, is not enough. I need at least two, maybe three. Here’s why. … The punishment needs to be so excessive that no human in football thinks you can spit on another man again,” Acho said on his podcast, Speakeasy.
People have said when you get spit on, they wanna look up where you at in the offseason. … If you allow somebody to spit on you, and you only give them one game, it’s just going to incite further violence.”
Stephen A. Smith also suggested a two-game suspension for the incident: one for spitting, and one for telling a “bold-faced lie” about it afterwards. And while a multi-game ban for spitting may seem excessive to people in the NFL, it’s usually par for the course in other sports. Especially soccer.
To be caught spitting on someone in a soccer game is to be caught doing one of the most disgusting and reprehensible acts you can commit on a football field. In the MLS, Luis Suarez was just banned for six games for a spitting incident. Norwich City of the English Championship (second tier) had a player, Borja Sainz, banned for six games for spitting back in January.
In 2024, Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was banned for five matches for just spitting towards an official. In 2015, Papis Cisse of Newcastle and Jonny Evans of Manchester United were handed seven- and six-game suspensions for spitting at each other during a match.
Now, soccer seasons usually feature 30-40 matches rather than 17, but even if you halve those bans down to three games for an NFL equivalent, that’s still a significantly more meaningful punishment than a one-gamer. Three games would certainly make everyone think twice about keeping their saliva in their mouth where it belongs.
