Tom Coughlin: ‘Jalen Ramsey was playing football within the rules’

Don’t count Tom Coughlin as one of the people who understands why Jalen Ramsey was ejected last Sunday.

Coughlin today was very clear in how he thought Ramsey was handling himself during the game and with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green.

Here’s Coughlin’s statement in whole from Tuesday afternoon:

“I want to voice my support for Jalen Ramsey following the incident in our game on Sunday. Our players are instructed to not retaliate or get involved or do anything that would result in eviction because that would hurt the team. Team comes first, and Jalen was trying to not hurt his team. While he did push his opponent — something that happened with other players during the game — he did not retaliate, he threw no punches, and he did not fight back. Jalen was doing what Coach Marrone has instructed him to do — which is to play tough, be physical and to make every play difficult for his opponent. There was banter going back and forth during the game, but Jalen was playing football within the rules.”

I agree with Coughlin — I think the referees got a little trigger-happy with the Ramsey ejection. If you wanted to penalize 15 yards, I don’t think any Jacksonville Jaguars fans would have had a problem with it or argument against it. But an ejection seemed a bit much.

What do you think?