Second Bills Player Suspended for Spitting at a Raider — and This One Is Fighting It

LAS VEGAS

The strangest disciplinary story of the NFL season now has a second chapter, and it comes with a denial, a slow-motion Instagram video and a hashtag about chicken nuggets. The league announced Wednesday that Buffalo Bills defensive back Sam Franklin Jr. has been suspended one game without pay for spitting at a Las Vegas Raiders player during Sunday's 33-30 Buffalo win in Las Vegas, according to Reuters. Franklin is the second Bills player suspended for spitting in the same game — a sentence that has probably never been true before in league history.

The NFL's version of events is specific. "With 1:32 remaining in the fourth quarter following Las Vegas' successful extra point attempt, Franklin Jr. spit at an opponent, violating Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, which applies to 'any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship,'" the league said in its statement, quoted by the New York Post and USA Today. The Post, citing the video circulating from the play, identified the opponent as Raiders right tackle DJ Glaze. No flag was thrown on the play, WIVB reported, and the league released no video evidence, according to the Associated Press.

One game, two suspensions

Franklin's ban lands two days after the league suspended Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson for one game for a spitting incident earlier in the same afternoon. Gardner-Johnson was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and ejected after spitting in the direction of Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, according to Reuters, and the Daily Caller reported, citing the AP, that he also spat toward center Tyler Linderbaum during the altercation. The two suspensions are believed to be the first time two players from the same team have been banned for separate spitting incidents in a single game.

The teammates have taken opposite paths since. Gardner-Johnson apologized to his teammates and accepted his punishment, according to the AP reporting cited by the Daily Caller, and Bills head coach Joe Brady called the act "inexcusable" and said he had spoken with the player privately. Franklin, meanwhile, is fighting. WGR reported that Franklin "vehemently denies" that he spat at a player, and his agents, Harold C. Lewis and Christian Addison, were blunter in a statement shared by NFL reporter Tom Pelissero and quoted by the New York Post: "We adamantly deny Sam spit at anyone. We look forward to the process fully exonerating him tomorrow at the hearing and the apology he deserves."

The evidence, such as it is

Franklin made his case in public within hours of the announcement. He posted a slow-motion replay of the extra point in question to his Instagram stories, TSN reported, with a caption reading, "Not a dirty play what so ever! Will always defend myself though. Still won't spit on anyone." At the bottom of the clip he added the hashtag "#notthemcnuggets" — an apparent reference to taking a shot below the belt from Glaze during the play. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, posting the same clip, offered the neutral verdict: Franklin confronts Glaze, who signals to an official — "Too tough to see anything clearly here."

That murkiness is the heart of the appeal. The hearing, set for Thursday, will be heard by one of the officers jointly appointed and paid by the NFL and the NFL Players Association — Derrick Brooks, Jordy Nelson, Ron Rivera or James Thrash, according to the Post and TSN. Franklin's side is asking the hearing officer to weigh a play on which no official threw a flag, no broadcast angle clearly shows the act, and the accused player says the contact ran the other direction. The league, for its part, rarely announces a suspension of this kind without internal video its discipline office considers conclusive, though it has not made that video public.

What it costs Buffalo

The timing softens the blow. The Bills are on their bye in Week 7, so both suspensions are set to begin Monday, October 26, after the break, according to Reuters. If Franklin's ban stands, he and Gardner-Johnson will both miss Buffalo's November 1 home game against the Baltimore Ravens and be eligible to return to the active roster on November 2. Buffalo improved to 5-1 with the win in Las Vegas, while the Raiders fell to 3-3, according to Yardbarker.

Franklin, 30, is a seven-year veteran in his second season with Buffalo after five years with the Carolina Panthers. He has played in all six games this season exclusively on special teams, leads the Bills in special-teams snaps and has recorded six tackles in that role, according to theScore and Yardbarker. Across 97 career games he has 124 tackles and a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown, according to Reuters. Gardner-Johnson is the bigger defensive loss — a starting safety — but losing a special-teams captain for the same game, for the same offense, is the kind of self-inflicted wound contenders spend all winter trying to avoid.

Whatever the hearing officer decides Thursday, the episode has already given the league a tidy morality play with an untidy ending: one Bill who spat, apologized and sat down, and another who says he never spat at all and wants his apology instead. Both men were punished for what they allegedly did to Raiders players on the same Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas. Only one of them is still arguing about it — and by Friday, we will know whether the argument worked. For more, see our Sports front and the latest news on Previously.