Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was not proud of himself for how he reacted to Emari Demercado’s boneheaded blunder against the Tennessee Titans.
Demercado entered the NFL’s Hall of Infamy on Sunday when he fumbled inches outside the end zone on a play that would have been a 76-yard touchdown run. The play would have given the Cardinals a commanding 28-6 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
Instead, the Titans came back to record their first win, 22-21, over a shellshocked Cardinals squad.
Gannon was understandably furious at Demercado after the running back’s huge error. The clip of Gannon charging at his player to chastise him has since gone viral on social media.
A much calmer Gannon spoke to reporters on Monday and expressed his regret for how he handled the situation in the moment.
“I woke up this morning and didn’t feel great about it, honestly,” admitted Gannon. “So at the team meeting, I addressed it.”
“I apologized to Emari, apologized to the team. And I just told them I kind of let the moment of what happened get the better of me there. Obviously, I try to be emotionally stable and calm because my job is to solve problems during a game, and kind of lead the charge on that. So it’s not really who I am, who I want to be, and I told the guys that today. So it’s a mistake by me, and it’s just like everybody in there. Everybody made some type of mistake yesterday, which culminates into why we didn’t win the game, and we can’t let it happen going forward.”
It’s hard to blame Gannon for being as frustrated as he was. The Cardinals had a win all but wrapped up once Demercado broke through the defense with nothing but grass ahead of him. The loss also came against a 0-4 Titans squad that was fresh off a 26-0 beatdown the previous week against the Houston Texans. Some may even feel like an apology wasn’t necessary.
However, Gannon’s response to the incident likely garnered him additional respect within the Cardinals’ locker room, particularly from Demercado himself. The third-year running back probably won’t be committing any boneheaded mistakes anytime soon.
