Just before being hit with a decisive taunting penalty in the Bears' 29-27 loss on Monday, Chicago linebacker Cassius Marsh said he was "hip-checked" by referee Tony Corrente.
The incident occurred with just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter with the Bears trailing the Steelers 23-20. After Marsh sacked Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on third down to seemingly set up a punt, Marsh did his signature jump-kick celebration and stepped toward the Pittsburgh sideline.
On his way back to the Bears sideline, Marsh and Corrente made contact before Corrente threw a flag for taunting, which extended the Steelers' drive and led to a field goal.
"On my way to the sideline, I got hip-checked by the ref and it's pretty clear," Marsh said during his post-game press conference. "If I were to do that to a ref or even touch a ref, we'd get kicked out of the game and possibly suspended and fined. I just think that that was incredibly inappropriate."
Marsh, who was released by the Steelers in August, had just been promoted from the Bears practice squad to face his former team.
After the game, Corrente said the contact between the two "had nothing to do" with the penalty.
"First of all, keep in mind that taunting is a point of emphasis this year," Corrente said in a pool report. "And with that said, I saw the player, after he made a big play, run toward the bench area of the Pittsburgh Steelers and posture in such a way that I felt he was taunting them.
"I didn't judge [the contact] as anything that I dealt with. That had nothing to do with it. It was the taunting aspect."
