Bears DE Akiem Hicks gets ejected for shoving an official, throws jersey and pads into crowd

There are certain things you can’t do, even when the game is a laugher.

Things were going great for the Chicago Bears, up 35-3 on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Akiem Hicks decided to watch the rest of the game from afar. He shoved an official, which is an easy ejection. It came after a Bears interception, and something happened to make Hicks mad enough to make contact with an official.

But hey, some Bears fan got an extra gift out of it, when Hicks threw his jersey and shoulder pads into the crowd.

This is from Adam Hoge of WGN:

Too bad he couldn’t keep the pads too, but those game-worn jerseys are a nice souvenir. Better than catching a foul ball at a baseball game anyway.

Hicks probably won’t have to pay the Bears back for the jersey, but it’s likely he’ll have to pay for the ejection. The NFL is almost assuredly going to fine him. Usually the NFL factors in an ejection when deciding a suspension so Hicks might not miss another game, but there’s no guarantee of that either. The NFL takes contact with officials seriously, as it should.

Hicks has developed into one of the best and most underrated defensive linemen in the NFL. The Buccaneers had to be happy to not deal with him in the second half Sunday, not that it seemed to matter much.

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @YahooSchwab

Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
Apple Podcasts• Stitcher • Google Podcasts

More NFL coverage from Yahoo Sports:
• Cardinals QB Bradford loses small fortune after demotion
• Report: Steelers ‘actively shopping’ star player
• Bears’ Trubisky breaks team’s single-game record for TDs
• The Butt Snap is a worthy challenger to the Butt Fumble