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December 26, 2007

Sapp tells his side

ALAMEDA – As Warren Sapp’s world turns …

He had his say on his ejection Wednesday and said he felt “cheated.”

Not because he lost a chance to compete, because he was ejected and hadn’t touched anyone.

“I should have whipped somebody's ass,” Sapp said. “I should have beaten somebody up so at least they put you on SportsCenter for whipping some ass. At least you get a little respect.”

I'm sure commissioner Roger Goodell loves seeing players talk like that because we all know Goodell has a great sense of humor when it comes to the image of the NFL.

The NFL will announce a decision by Friday as to whether Sapp will be suspended for bumping umpire Garth DeFelice.

Sapp denies touching DeFelice and there doesn’t appear to be any clear video evidence that he did.

Sapp was also penalized for verbally abusing the officials. He doesn’t deny cursing at them, but said they also cursed at him.

Aside from the expletives Sapp admittedly used, he might have hit a nerve with referee Jerome Boger, who is black, with the ever-charged “N-word.”

“'Yo, Man, you can't just be out here just arbitrarily declining penalties, my (brother),” is what Sapp said he asked Boger.

He did put the ‘a’ not the ‘er’ at the end of the “N-word.” But that might have been part of the verbal abuse.

You never know because not every black person likes the language used in rap music or even in casual talk among blacks.

Sapp often speaks freely of how he talks down to officials and the NFL has penalized him before for doing so.

Prior to a 2003 game while playing for Tampa, Sapp bumped an official and was fined $50,000 for that and constant verbal abuse of officials.

Reputation has a lot to do with this.

Packers linebacker Nick Barnett was shown clearly putting his hands on an official in their loss at Chicago on Sunday.

The big difference? It’s clear that official had pulled Barnett down and Barnett could say he thought it was a player grabbing him.

There might not be video evidence to prove an official walked up on Sapp.

Then again, if Sapp had left the field after the first of his three personal foul penalties, this wouldn’t be a discussion.

Lane Kiffin tried to sub for Sapp, but he wasn't done yapping.

The Raiders don’t expect any discipline from the NFL.

--Jason Jones

Posted by Ahmed Ortiz at 3:57 PM | Comments |