Bucs' Seferian-Jenkins apologizes
— -- TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins apologized Monday for drawing a penalty on a touchdown celebration and posting a picture of it on Instagram.
Seferian-Jenkins was flagged for using the football as a prop while celebrating a fourth-quarter touchdown in Sunday's loss to Atlanta. Seferian-Jenkins put his foot on the ball and mimicked the pose of the logo for Captain Morgan rum. The 15-yard penalty was assessed on the ensuing kickoff and helped give Atlanta good field position to start a touchdown drive that put the Falcons ahead for good.
After posting a photo of the celebration on Instagram, Seferian-Jenkins quickly heard from coach Lovie Smith.
"Once it came to my attention, then I confronted him," Smith said.
The picture quickly was taken down and Seferian-Jenkins said he regretted his actions.
"It's unacceptable," Seferian-Jenkins said. "I posted a picture. I shouldn't have posted it. We're in the middle of a 1-8 season, and I can see why people were upset with it for multiple reasons. The last thing I want to do is put myself in front of the team anyway. I want to let my play do the talking and not anything after we score because, at the end of the day, we got seven points but gave them 15 yards which led to a game-winning score.
"Can't have it. Need to be more mature. But when you're in the heat of the game, you're just having fun. You're enjoying it. You work so hard and you just do something fun. That's what it was. Looking back on it, literally as soon as I got back to the sideline I knew I shouldn't have done that. It was a lapse of judgment, and that's not what I want to be known for. And that's not what I want to be answering on a Monday. I do not want my coach having to answer questions about what I did after a touchdown celebration on a Monday."
Seferian-Jenkins said he'll learn from the episode.
"You make mistakes," he said. "That's life. You move on and you grow. That's life."
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