Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch has been suspended for one game and will lose out on his game check of $79,411 for making contact with a referee, ESPN reports. The contact took place during Thursday night's game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Lynch was subsqunelty ejected.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Lynch has appealed the suspension.
It all went down in the second quarter after Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters hit Raiders quarterback Derek Carr a bit late. A scuffle then broke out. Peters was hit with a personal foul.
Speaking to ESPN SportsCenter's Michael Eaves, Raiders offensive tackle Donald Penn explained that Lynch was just looking out for Peters.
"Marshawn was just trying to get his cousin and make sure his cousin was safe because Marshawn saw three big O-linemen going after his cousin and Marshawn knows how we get down as offensive linemen. And he knows how his cousin gets down, so I think he was just trying to stop something from getting bigger than it was. He didn't know if a punch was going to get thrown or if it was going to blow up. I think he was just trying to get in there to get his cousin to the sideline, get things safe, get us back playing."
After being ejected, Marshawn went up to the stands to watch.
Following the end of the game, Oakland natives Marshawn and Peters took public transportation home.
Ecstatic fans on BART snagged photos and videos of Marshawn and began a "Fuck the Chiefs" chant.
In a letter to Lynch, NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan wrote, "You made deliberate physical contact with one of our game officials as he was diffusing an active confrontation between players. You were disqualified for your inappropriate and unsportsmanlike actions. Your conduct included pushing the game official and grabbing his jersey."
The Raiders won the game 31-30.
