In their Week 12 loss to the Eagles, the Bills might have lost another key defensive player.
But this time, an injury is not the cause. The incident started when Shaq Lawson and a fan got into an altercation during the first quarter of the Bills vs. Eagles game.
Fans who attended Sunday’s game recorded Lawson, defensive lineman Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips, and themselves fighting with a heckler who was sitting in the first row. Eventually, Lawson—following his teammate—pushed the heckler after Phillips approached him and got in his face.
Following the shove, Lawson backed off while Leonard Floyd made an effort to mediate the situation and led Phillips back to the bench.
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The fan didn’t seem any worse for wear following the event. After that, he kept taunting the Bills players. According to Eagles fan Becca Cavalier, who recorded the brawl on camera, the “chirping” was what started the fight. She told the Buffalo News.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened that led to them all coming over,” she continued. According to Phillips “and the fan in the video were chirping at each other a lot the whole game, but I couldn’t really hear what was being said.”
The officials were too preoccupied with each team’s on-field performance to observe the incident, which happened well into the Bills’ sideline. Later, Lawson expressed regret.
Lawson added, “Those of you who know me know that I’m all about the fans, and I have a lot of respect for the game I play and my opponents,” in reference to ESPN. “There was a fan behind our bench yesterday before the game began, threatening our families and ourselves with death threats. The supporter was permitted to stay for the whole game, despite our requests for Philadelphia security to remove him. Our feelings eventually overflowed, and I made a mistake. I’m sorry for that, but there are boundaries that shouldn’t be violated.”
The NFL, however, will undoubtedly pay attention to the altercation. That might result in Lawson receiving a severe penalty.
Lawson “likely would be fined and probably suspended” for his incident with a fan during Sunday’s Bills-Eagles game, a league source told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
This is not shocking. Lawson did, after all, interact physically with a fan. Even though that individual seemed to be alright and even seemed to enjoy his part in starting the whole thing, the NFL will want to make it clear that any player will not be allowed to respond in this way.
Since the infamous “Malice at the Palace” altercation between Ron Artest and a Pistons fan in 2004, professional sports leagues have been on high alert for these kinds of escalated situations. Though it didn’t quite get to those heights on Sunday, the NFL
