Cleveland Browns linebacker Chris Kirksey briefly knocked Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker out of the game on Sunday with a brutal shot to the head in the second quarter. Locker had crossed the goal line on a rush and was about two yards deep in the end zone, but Kirksey left his feet and delivered a forearm to the head anyway. Locker felt it was a cheap shot.
“I thought I was clearly in the end zone,” Locker said, via Jim Wyatt of the Tennesseean. “I wasn’t expecting to get hit. I kind of thought that was a cheap shot.”
The hit would have made more sense if Locker was a receiver, not a ball carrier. Kirksey still would have been flagged, but at least he could argue that he was trying to break up the play. Once a runner crosses the goal line the play is over, and Locker clearly had.
The real irony here? Kirksey is the player the latest installment of the Madden video game shrunk down into a pocket-sized linebacker in one of its hilarious glitches. And he was on the Titans in the game! What are the odds?
GIF via Cork Gaines
