Winston in sideline scuffle with Saints

With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trailing badly and on the way to their fifth straight loss, tensions boiled over in the third quarter Sunday.

Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston, who left the Bucs’ 30-10 loss at New Orleans with shoulder soreness after the first half, appeared to instigate a scuffle along the sideline.

The scuffle appeared to be ignited when Winston vigorously pressed his finger into the back of Saints rookie cornerback Marshon Lattimore’s helmet during a dead-ball period between a failed third-down pass and a punt.

Lattimore turned and shoved Winston, after which Bucs receiver Mike Evans leveled Lattimore from behind.

Saints defensive back De’Vante Harris then came charging into the melee to defend Lattimore.

The score was 30-3 at the time. Evans was called for unnecessary roughness. There were no ejections.

Fournette deactivated

The Jaguars deactivated running back Leonard Fournette against Cincinnati for violating a team rule.

The Jags made the surprising announcement 90 minutes before kickoff.

Jacksonville did not disclose what Fournette did to draw coach Doug Marrone’s punishment.

Anthem protests

Associated Press journalists counted 15 NFL players protesting the national anthem in some form before games Sunday. San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid, linebacker Eli Harold and receiver Marquise Goodwin kneeled during the anthem before their game with the Arizona Cardinals. It appeared that six active players and at least one inactive player for Seattle sat for the anthem prior to a game with Washington. No members of the Houston Texans knelt. One week earlier, all but about 10 Texans took a knee to protest team owner Bob McNair’s comment that “we can’t have the inmates running the prison” during a meeting of NFL owners about player protests.