The NFL didn’t buy Marlon Humphrey’s effort to avoid a taunting fine

Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey’s game-clinching pick-six against the Steelers was capped by an uncalled taunting foul. And despite his best effort to explain that it wasn’t a taunt, the NFL didn’t buy it.

Humphrey was fined $11,255 for taunting.

“I want to make this, like, pretty clear,” Humphrey said after the Week 16 win. “When I was running with the football I saw [linebacker] David Ojabo, a really great teammate of mine, and I was trying to pitch him the football. So some people brought up to me that it looked like taunting, or something. But I was trying to pitch him the football and there was no taunting there at all. I just want to make that very clear.”

Humphrey will have the right to appeal the fine. And he presumably will.

Still, it’s hard to watch the play and see it as anything other than a taunt. Yes, he initially seemed to be considering a Christmas gift for Ojabo in the form of a touchdown. But Humphrey eventually pivoted to sticking the ball out to Steelers receiver Calvin Austin III as Humphrey carried the ball into the end zone.