As Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid awaits his expected punishment from the NFL for his dangerous late hit to the head of the Patriots' Ben Watson that has the 38-year-old tight end in concussion protocol, Reid has insisted the hit had nothing to do with the recent Twitter beef between the two.
Watson hasn't talked publicly since the hit, but he tweeted about it Saturday.
Our Tom E. Curran tweeted his disdain for the hit just after it happened.
That, of course, garnered a number of reactions, including a "like" from one Benjamin Watson, as this screengrab shows:
Looking back at the play (via a tweet from the NFL Network's Mike Giardi, above), Watson had already been tackled following a reception from Tom Brady. Reid, a 27-year-old veteran safety, was penalized for unnecessary roughness but escaped ejection.
Now, for the backstory between the two, Reid recently was critical of the Players Coalition as well as Jay-Z's partnership with the NFL. That didn't sit well with Watson, who responded with the tweet below:
Reid has drawn multiple fines for unnecessary roughness and was ejected from a game for his hit on Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger last season. He also contends that he's been unfairly targeted for drug testing by the NFL because of his kneeling during the national anthem.
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