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: