Packers’ Jaire Alexander Receives Suspension So Odd It’s Funny

The Green Bay Packers will enter their must-win matchup with the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17 without one of their most important players.

They’re doing it voluntarily, too!

Green Bay suspended cornerback Jaire Alexander on Wednesday, handing down a one-game punishment for “conduct detrimental to the team.” The NFL is no stranger to this sort of suspension, especially this season, but the Packers’ reason might just make you laugh.

Alexander decided to crash the captains’ meeting at midfield before Green Bay’s victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 16, and almost cost the Packers a possession in the process.

The Packers didn’t make Alexander a captain, but the 26-year-old was back in his hometown of Charlotte and decided he was worthy of the honor, trotting out to midfield anyway. He did win the toss but proceeded to tell referee Alex Kemp that the Packers wanted to be on defense, instead of deferring their choice to the second half. Kemp clarified and fixed Alexander’s mistake, but if he hadn’t, it could have cost the Packers a possession.

It was such an obvious blunder that it left Packers head coach Matt LaFleur evoking the words of Julia Roberts’ character from “Pretty Woman.”

“That was a big mistake,” LaFleur said, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “That’s something that you review with the guys before they go out there every time about, ‘Hey, we win the toss, we’re going to defer.’ I went to the officials before the game, made sure they knew what we were going to do. We had an incident earlier this year where we had a similar situation, so always trying to be proactive in that approach.”

Instead of owning up to his mistake, Alexander deflected all responsibility.

“I said, ‘I want our defense to be out there,’ and they all looked at me like I was crazy,” Alexander said, per Demovsky. “I’m like, I mean it’s pretty simple what I said, like I want the defense to be out there. They like, ‘You mean defer?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I guess.'”

The Packers clearly want to avoid this situation in the future, which is why Alexander won’t be on the field Sunday. It’ll be his 10th missed game of the season.