Packers suspend Jaire Alexander after he nearly mixed up coin toss
Alexander will miss Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings
The Green Bay Packers have placed cornerback Jaire Alexander on the reserve/suspended list for "conduct detrimental to the team" regarding his participation in Sunday's pregame coin toss before their 33-30 win over the Carolina Panthers.
"The decision to suspend a player is never easy and not one we take lightly. Unfortunately, Jaire's actions prior to the game in Carolina led us to take this step," said Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst. "As an organization, we have an expectation that everyone puts the team first. While we are disappointed, we had a good conversation with Jaire this morning and fully expect him to learn from this as we move forward together. We look forward to welcoming him back next week, as he is a valued member of this team and will continue to be in the future."
Alexander will miss Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings, the team the 7-8 Packers are currently tied with in the NFC North.
Ahead of last Sunday's coin toss, Alexander joined the Packers' three game captains — Aaron Jones, Quay Walker and Eric Wilson — at midfield and called tails, winning the toss. The cornerback then told referee Alex Kemp that he wanted to be on defense. Kemp clarified by asking if he meant defer, to which Alexander said yes.
"I said, 'I want our defense to be out there,' and they all looked at me like I was crazy," Alexander said afterward. "I'm like, I mean, it's pretty simple what I said, like I want the defense to be out there. They like, 'You mean defer?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, I guess.'"
When a team wins the coin toss, fans might think they then get to choose whether to kick or return to open the game, with the understanding that the second half will open the opposite way.
It's actually a bit more complicated than that. Instead of kicking or returning, teams are actually deciding when they want the choice to kick or return to open a half. If a team says "we'll receive," that's fine; they're just saying they are making the choice now and would like to receive the ball.
But you must never, ever say, "we'll kick." Because an official might interpret that as deciding you are making the choice to open the game by kicking off, and then the other team will make its choice at the start of the second half, at which point they will obviously choose to receive, resulting in your team kicking off to start both halves. That's why players always say "defer," because they are deferring their team's choice to the second half.
"That was a big mistake," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. "That's something that you review with the guys before they go out there every time about, 'Hey, we win the toss, we're going to defer.' I went to the officials before the game, made sure they knew what we were going to do. We had an incident earlier this year where we had a similar situation, so always trying to be proactive in that approach."
The Packers have been rotating their captains weekly, and while Alexander wasn't scheduled to be part of the Week 16 group, he said LaFleur knew the game was being played in his hometown.
"It's only suiting," Alexander said. "I don't think Coach knew I was from Charlotte."