Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Jack Jones was ripped to shreds by the internet on Monday when it appeared that he played a bit of a cruel joke on a young Kansas City Chiefs fan when celebrating his pick-six. Evidently, viewers got it all wrong and Jones explained why.
Jones intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the second quarter of the divisional matchup and ran it back for a touchdown. To celebrate, Jones appeared to hand the ball to a child in Chiefs gear but then quickly yanked the ball away, leading to plenty of outrage online.
Ed Zurga/AP
But Jones took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to explain that he only yanked away the ball because an adult tried to steal the ball from the child.
I didn’t snatch that ball from the kid it was from that blac dude who tried to take it watch it again lollipop https://t.co/SNkD0lk08d
— Jack Jones🏄🏽♂️ (@presidentjacc) December 26, 2023
The sequence can briefly be seen, but cameras cut away too quickly for fans to see it all unfold. It’s unclear if the child ended up getting the ball in the end or the man from behind spoiled it all. But at the very least, it looks like the internet owes Jones an apology.
The Raiders went on to win 20–14 to improve to 7–8 while the Chiefs fell to 9–6.
