“That’s a fireable offense”: Skip Bayless calls on Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon to cut Emari Demercado over brutal touchdown mistake vs. Titans

Jonathan Gannon is in only his third year as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, and he is already a topic of national conversation.

On Sunday against the then-winless Tennessee Titans, running back Emari Demercado committed a costly fumble when he prematurely released the ball while rushing for what would have been a 72-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. The ball went past the endzone for a touchback, and the Cardinals collapsed from there, going from leading 21-6 to losing 21-22.

Gannon accosted him after the fumble and was fined $100,000 for it, but Skip Bayless thinks he was justified in blowing up over it. And speaking on Tuesday's episode of Underdog Fantasy's podcast The Arena: Gridiron, he went one step further and suggested that the coach cut Demercado from the team:

“That's a fireable offense, and that's how you drive your point home. You just wake up Monday morning and just send him packing. You're okay without him. You can figure that out. You can add somebody you got, you got plenty of time. ...It sends a message around the National Football League.”

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Co-host Gerald McCoy disagreed, however:

"What about everybody else? ...This is a young kid, a third-string guy who's worked his whole life to get to this point. Should he have been better at the moment? Yes. But you tell him. That's where you have that one-on-one."

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Jonathan Gannon apologizes for confrontation with Emari Demercado

The day after the game, Jonathan Gannon announced that he had apologized to Emari Demercado and the team during a meeting:

“I didn’t see the video, but I actually woke up this morning and didn’t feel great about it, honestly. ...I just told them, I kind of let the moment get the better of me. Obviously, I try to be emotionally stable and calm, because my job is to solve problems during a game, and kind of lead the charge on that. It’s not really who I am, who I want to be.”

It was not the only fumble the Cardinals committed in that game, however. Kyler Murray was hit in the face by a snap and beaten to the ball before that. And after Demercado, cornerback Dadrion Taylor-Demerson was the next to fumble, dropping an initially intercepted pass that Tyler Lockett recovered in the end zone.

Gannon, however, expressed confidence that the team would eventually regain its footing:

“(I) talked to the team today about it, showed them the things that we needed to show and correct... They had a good response, as good as you can have with losing a game like that. ...We got the right leaders in the locker room, the players will rally around doing the right things. Team over you, urgency to get better, and that’s what we’ll do.”

The Cardinals next visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Kickoff is at 10 am MST on Fox.

Edited by Andre Castillo