Two Players Ejected on the Opening Kickoff as Eagles-Jaguars Starts With Chaos in London

The NFL’s first London game of the season produced a touchdown, five penalty flags and two ejections on its first play, and then erased almost all of it. Philadelphia linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Jacksonville defensive end Bryan Thomas Jr. were ejected for fighting on the opening kickoff at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, after offsetting penalties had already wiped out a 90-yard Jacksonville touchdown return, USA Today reports. The kickoff was simply taken again, with two fewer players available for the rest of the afternoon.

What happened on the opening kickoff in London?

A return, a fight and a reset, in that order. Jaguars rookie Josh Cameron fielded the opening kick and ran it back 90 yards for what looked like the fastest possible start in London, but flags were already down. Away from the return, near midfield, Trotter and Thomas stayed tangled long after their block should have ended, wrestling across roughly 15 yards and into the midfield logo before Trotter shoved Thomas to the ground and Thomas appeared to aim a kick at him from the turf, USA Today reports. Teammates and officials separated them, several officials lost their hats in the scrum, and after a long huddle the referees announced both players were disqualified.

Why did the touchdown come off the board?

Because the play carried fouls by both teams. Philadelphia was called for an illegal formation and Jacksonville for holding on the return, NBC Sports reports, and offsetting penalties cancel out: no touchdown, no yardage, kick again. The fight changed none of that arithmetic. It only changed the personnel, which is what makes the sequence so strange. A play that officially never counted still ended two players’ games, on a weekend when officiating had already decided Georgia’s 20-17 win at Alabama on a no-call and a late personal foul the night before.

Who are the two ejected players?

One starter and one special teamer, and one persistent mix-up. Trotter, the son of the former Eagles linebacker of the same name, had just earned a starting role and was making his second start of the season after a 15-tackle game against the Rams, NBC Sports reports. Thomas is an undrafted rookie defensive end appearing in his fourth career game, and he is not Brian Thomas Jr., Jacksonville’s star receiver, a distinction USA Today had to spell out as the ejection news spread. Both men had flown across the Atlantic for a Week 5 game and were done inside its first minute, talkSPORT putting the disqualifications at 13 seconds in and reporting the last opening-kickoff ejection came in 1989.

Why is there no clear replay of the fight?

The cameras were following the ball, and the fight was not near it. The scuffle happened at midfield while Cameron was finishing his return near the goal line, so the live broadcast missed the start of it and the replays never produced a definitive angle, NBC Sports reports. That gap fuels the argument that followed. Fans and analysts who saw only the shove questioned whether either player deserved to go, Pro Football Network reports, while the crew on the field, which threw five flags on the play, had the one view nobody else got. It is the second straight week the league’s officials have been the story as much as the players, after the NFL suspended two of its own officials earlier this month and Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles publicly graded the flag rate of the crew his team had scouted.

What happened next in a chaotic London first quarter?

The stadium kept malfunctioning around the football. Jacksonville scored first anyway, Trevor Lawrence finding Parker Washington for a 51-yard touchdown, but talkSPORT’s on-site report says the stadium audio then cut out for more than three minutes in the first quarter, leaving booing and stray whistles as the only sound while staff worked on the problem. For a league that stages these games as a polished export product, the opening quarter in London was closer to improvised theatre, a reminder from the same sport in which a Missouri high school referee was suspended this month for grabbing a player that officials and order are easier to lose than to restore.

What happens next for Trotter and Thomas?

Both cases go to the league office. Ejections are reviewed, and the NFL can fine either or both players on top of the game they have already lost, with any announcement expected once the teams are back from London. Philadelphia, which came in 2-2 and already short-handed, has to settle a linebacker rotation it had only just changed, and AFC South-leading Jacksonville, 3-1 entering the game, loses a special teams regular. The return match for both is Week 6 back in the United States, by which time the longest trip of their season will be remembered for its shortest appearance.