Javon Wims will be facing discipline from the NFL for his sucker punch to Chauncey Gardner-Johnson that led to an ejection in the third quarter of the Chicago Bears' loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Wims, who hit Gardner-Johnson twice before Saints cornerback Janoris Jenkins came to his teammate's defense, is expected to be facing a possible suspension for the incident, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
Wims defended his actions against Gardner-Johnson, saying the Saints defensive back spit on him and ripped out his mouthpiece which led to the two punches to Gardner-Johnson's helmet, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. Gardner-Johnson not only has a history of incidents on the field, but with his own teammate as he was the player Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas punched in practice last month. Thomas was suspended for a game by the team for his actions.
Wims tapped Gardner-Johnson after a play and punched him in the helmet. As Gardner-Johnson waited for a penalty to be thrown, Wims punched Gardner-Johnson again before other players got involved in the scrum. Jenkins came to Gardner-Johnson's aid by jumping on Wims and wrestling him to the ground. Gardner-Johnson didn't appear to throw any punches back as a few Saints teammates rallied to his defense.
Javon Wims punches a helmet twice pic.twitter.com/hESxWegifm
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"I did not see it. I totally missed it," Bears head coach Matt Nagy admitted after the game. "I was looking down when I heard about it. But what I did hear is what it looked like, which is completely unacceptable. We've talked to him and told him that that's not how things go here.
"One of Javon's strengths is his character and who he is as a person, and he's since apologized, but that's not -- you don't have that. There's no part of that in this game. Again, I still haven't seen it, but from what I heard, it's not good. That's not how we roll here, and we'll be talking to him."
The 15-yard penalty led to a Nick Foles interception on the very next play, which upset Nagy as his offense stalled for a quarter.
"I felt like it kind of -- it took the sting out, the fire for a little bit," Nagy said. "We had to regroup the defense at least in that situation with the field position, was able to hold them and not let them score touchdowns, but we had to regroup offensively on the sideline and just let these guys know, like let's go, get on track and get out of that. That's kind of where we were with that."
Bears quarterback Nick Foles refused to comment if Wims spoke to the team after the game.
