DeAngelo Hall says ref also at fault for outburst

Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall made headlines for all the wrong reasons in Week 8 after he was ejected for berating a referee, but Hall says both he and the ref share equal blame for the incident. The veteran corner joined 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C. and indicated that there are efforts being made to find other angles of the argument to establish some culpability on the ref's side.

Hall argued that a cooler, more mature self prevailed in the initial scrum with Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. He initially walked away from the tussle after taking a couple shots from the wideout, but his involvement also drew a flag -- prompting the confrontation with the referee (via Steven Cuce of Sports Radio Interviews):

There's no way that particular play shouldn't have drawn a flag. As far as the helmet coming off and all that? He had already pulled off my helmet halfway off and it was a TV timeout ... Well, it wasn't a TV timeout. We called a timeout, so helmets could come off during timeouts, so that wasn't why I got flagged, because the helmet was off and things like that. It was just a back and fourth between me and that particular ref and I can't go into too many details because it's still under review, but that's how it took place. ... If you look at the TV copy, you won't only see me. That's why we are trying to get other copies and other angles, so you can see both sides, but me and the ref was equally at fault on that particular play.

Hall reiterated that the league and the NFLPA are further investigating the incident, examining different points of view that led up to the argument. He said that the ref was dishing it out and giving it right back to him, describing a heated back-and-forth that was not at first apparent on the Sunday broadcast.

While he may be getting his side out and trying to split the blame, he did say he regretted the outburst, telling 106.7 that, in hindsight, he would "obviously change everything."

This story originally appeared at SB Nation.