Jermaine Jones apologizes to referee after losing his cool in playoff loss

New England Revolution midfielder Jermaine Jones has reached out to referee Mark Geiger with his hat in hand, extending an apology for his on-field outburst towards the official after a controversial call in Wednesday's playoff game against D.C. United.

Jones reacted angrily when Geiger did not award a penalty for a clear handball in the box on United defender Sean Franklin, charging at Geiger from over 30 yards away and shoving him. For his actions, Jones was shown a red card and ejected from the match. New England would eventually lose the match 2-1, eliminating them from the MLS playoffs.

"I apologize for the situation and what I did after," Jones told reporters. "I apologize, for a national team player and all that kind of stuff, it cannot happen, and I'm sorry for that. But, who knows me knows that I hate to lose and I would not go crazy if I'm not 100 percent sure that's a penalty.

"From man to man, to Geiger, I would say I'm sorry for what happened, and it won't happen again."

Geiger explained his decision not to award a penalty, telling a pool reporter that the "defender's arm was in a natural position," and that "because of the short distance, there was also no time to react." Geiger summed it up by calling the incident a "case of ball-to-hand."

The controversial call hurt the Revolution even more due to the fact that Geiger had just awarded D.C. United a penalty for a dubious call on Scott Caldwell 10 minutes earlier.

"I think everybody who came today could see it, it was 100 percent a penalty," Jones said. "My passion then after maybe went a little bit high, but I think it's normal. It's only two minutes to go, and then you're out. For what happened after, I would say I'm sorry, maybe because I play with the national team it cannot happen, but it happened.

"People who know me, they know that I'm not a good loser. In that moment I was really upset, I think if you give Scott (Caldwell)'s penalty, you have to give this penalty, too."

This incident wasn't the first time Geiger has been confronted by players: