JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey wanted to sit down for this one.
The second-year pro and budding star dispelled rumors, discussed his emotions and delivered more trash talk.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was ejected for instigating a fight with Cincinnati Bengals receiver A.J. Green, Ramsey spent 20 minutes Wednesday explaining everything that happened in the first half of Jacksonville’s latest victory.
He offered no apologies but had plenty of remorse for not getting “my money’s worth” in a fight that resulted in both players getting ejected.
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“If I knew I was going to get kicked out, I would have got active,” Ramsey said. “It’s cool. Now I know what to do in that situation. If I’m ever in that situation again, best believe I’m going to get active out there.”
Ramsey acknowledged walking to the visitors’ locker room after halftime in an attempt to continue things with Green. He was turned away by several security personnel.
Ramsey also denied a rumor that his mother had to be called to calm him down as well as reports that he went over the line in talking smack with Green in the first two quarters.
“It’s rumors out there that I said some deep, some personnel stuff,” Ramsey said. “I’m going to let y’all know that’s not true. I get out, I do my thing, I talk … But I don’t go personal. I don’t talk about nobody’s wife, nobody’s kids, nobody’s family. I don’t do that.”
Ramsey obviously said something that prompted the mild-mannered Green to grab him around the neck, throw him to the ground and starting throwing punches.
“I told him almost every play that he was weak, that he was soft,” Ramsey said. Those “are straight facts. He just can’t handle the truth. It’s facts. I told him his time was almost up. I told him that it was easy, which it was. He had one catch for 6 yards.
“I was just out there spitting facts to him. He got mad.”
The NFL said Monday that Green would not be suspended for his actions.
Ramsey was stunned to learn he had been “kicked out for not doing anything.”
“I went up to one of the refs and asked him straight up, `Why am I getting ejected?'” Ramsey said. “He was like, `To be honest, Jalen, I don’t know.’ That’s exactly what he said, quote for quote.”
Ramsey also said he has been told he won’t be fined for what happened in the 23-7 victory.
Also Wednesday, Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette called his one-game benching “just another lesson that I have to learn and grow up from.”
Coach Doug Marrone made the rookie inactive against the Bengals for violating a team rule. Fournette watched the game from the sideline and later apologized on Twitter.
“We just had a misunderstanding,” Fournette said. “That’s all. That’s out the way now. Did my time, did my punishment and now we’re on to the L.A. Chargers.”
