Sports fans are used to players talking trash between each other during games. Most of it, we don't hear. Such will be the case between the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams in Week 16. But one key Rams player, Puka Nacua, might have just talked smack with the wrong group of people.
And those people do not play for the Seahawks or have a part in the organization at all. Instead, Nacua had some extremely terrible things to say about NFL referees. He called them "the worst." Nacua implied that sometimes officials call penalties that they know aren't fouls, but that will get them on the broadcast of the game.
In other words, one can safely bet that LA head coach Sean McVay will be having a one-on-one with his star wide receiver in which the conversation boils down to, "Don't ever say those things again."
Rams' Puka Nacua opens mouth and inserts foot ahead of Week 16's matchup with the Seattle Seahawks
On a streaming series with Adin Ross, and shared on social media by Nate Atkins, the Rams reporter for The Athletic, Nacua is heard to say, "The refs are the worst. These guys are lawyers. They want to be on TV too. You don’t think (the referee is) texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you just saw me on Sunday Night Football. That wasn’t PI, but I called it.’"
Atkins also tweeted that the stream was supposed to occur in the days ahead of the Seahawks matchup, but that McVay wouldn't allow it. Nacua says as much during the broadcast.
Puka Nacua is 24 years old, but seemingly with the self-awareness of someone in the early teens. The officials during his games are clearly not going to have retribution against him for what he said because they are professionals who are attempting to do their best.
Instead, the NFL will almost certainly levy a hefty fine on Nacua, as the league should. Without realizing it (as he didn't seem to even be aware of what he was saying), Nacua has not only called into question the quality of the officials, but the integrity of the NFL.
If a referee is calling a penalty simply thinking it was to get them on the broadcast, that could change the outcome of a game. A sport will quickly lose faith with fans if fans do not think the games are legitimate. This isn't the case with the league, of course, but based on Puka Nacua's poor attempt to draw attention to himself, one wouldn't know it.
The positive part is that at least no Seattle Seahawks player said what Nacua said. At least, not publicly. One can assume an apology from Puka Nacua will be forthcoming.