TOSSING ICE CUBES ON HOT GUMBO
Rams corner walks back spicey November rant made after 45-35 loss to New Orleans
Call it what you will. Gumbogate. Or the Gumbo Grudge Match. Whatever.
But some particularly biting comments from Los Angeles Rams cornerback Marcus Peters following his team’s 45-35 loss to the Saints in New Orleans two months ago have been plunked back onto the stovetop and reheated this week.
So what if no one is throwing any more hot spices into it? This is the kind of pre-game story we all love to devour.
The Rams visit the Saints on Sunday in a rematch of their November shootout, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for the NFC championship. The winner advances to Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3.
Gumbo, if you don’t know, is a classic Creole dish in Louisiana — an intensely flavoured seafood or meat stew, loaded with peppers and onions.
Peters got scorched by the Saints’ top receiver in that November game, Michael Thomas, who finished with 171 yards on 12 catches. Saints head coach Sean Payton allegedly aimed some late-game trashing talking Peters’ way on the field, and the obviously miffed fourth-year corner went off about it in the Rams locker-room afterward.
“Tell Sean Payton keep talking that s--t,” Peters said. “We’re going to see him soon. You feel me? Yeah. Cuz I like what he was saying on the sidelines, too. So tell him to keep talking that s--t and I hope you see me soon. You feel me?
“And then we’re going to have a good little, nice little bowl of gumbo together.”
At the time Payton refused to retort, other than to commend Peters for being “a competitor.” On Monday, Peters hauled out the controversy from the freezer when he twice tweeted, before deleting both messages: “It’s gumbo week let’s eat.” Mmmmm, mmmmm, good! Now, of course, everyone at both team headquarters is being asked this week about Gumbogate. On Wednesday, it came up twice at Payton’s news conference, first when he was asked if he’s more of a chicken or seafood-combo kind of guy. “Next question,” he said tersely, before apparently deciding ahhh what the hey, might as well have a little fun with it. “I don’t like seafood,” he said, smiling, in going back to the question, per online video. “I know where you’re going (with that).” Ha-ha.
A few minutes later, Payton was asked directly if he had any comment on Peters’ post-game rant from November.
“No, listen,” Payton said. “He’s someone that we grew real close to in the (2015 pre-draft) evaluation process. He’s from the Bay Area. (As a college coach) I used to recruit that area where he went to high school. We came close to drafting him.… So I have great respect for him. It’s all good.” But does Payton even like gumbo? “I’m OK with it,” the native Californian said. “I’m more of a Midwestern-like, steak-andpotato guy.”
For his part, Peters on Wednesday also threw a handful of ice cubes onto the once piping-hot stew. “I see y’all are trying to make it be something that it’s not, man,” Peters said in an interview video, whose remarks were transcribed by ProFootballTalk.com. “Just all the respect to Sean Payton and what he does. During a game, things happen. But I just love the fact that he’s a competitor. “When I was coming out of the draft and stuff, he was the same way — fiery, energy when I was meeting with him, and things like that. It wasn’t nothing to be disrespectful or anything like that. It was just I was p---ed off I didn’t have the game I wanted to have.” OK, that last part we can believe without a raised brow. Rams head coach Sean McVay — in a non-shocking coincidence — said virtually the same, nothing-to-taste-here words. “I think it was all in good fun,” McVay said of Peters’ November outburst. “There’s a competitiveness that exists. There’s a lot of dialogue that goes back and forth where when you have relationships or you have a history with people. And I think that Marcus was having fun with it, and I know that he has a lot of respect for coach Payton and the Saints. “But part of that banter, as long as it doesn’t take away from our ability to execute, I think it can be fun as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. I don’t think anybody took it out of context.… And I don’t think that will be a distraction at all for Marcus’ ability to play (on Sunday).”
Coming out of the draft and stuff, he was the same way — fiery, energy when I was meeting with him.