HOUSTON — The fallout from a heated exchange between NFL head coaches Dennis Allen and Arthur Smith following the Saints' 48-17 season-ending win over the Falcons continued on ESPN's 'First Take' with Shannon Sharpe on Monday.
The controversy stems from the Saints' late 1-yard touchdown in a kneel-down situation to go up by 24 points with 1:13 to play. It was an over-riding decision by backup quarterback Jameis Winston and members of the offense admittedly decided to exercise in order to give running back Jamaal Williams and opportunity to score.
Broadcasting live from the field off NRG Stadium in Houston, the NFL analyst and hall-of-fame tight end shared his sharp thoughts on the rogue decision made by the offense.
"It makes Dennis Allen look like he lost control of that locker room, but I'll say this – I would cut Jameis Winston today," Sharpe said. "I would not want him on my team. That's a loser's mentality."
"If people say, Shannon, what about when Dan Marino fake spiked the ball, or Peyton Manning? They were not in victory formation. If you get down and the defense is conceding, if you want to run the ball, let the defense line up. Don't you fool them, (let them) think it's a victory formation and then drive off the ball.
"That's going rogue," he continued. "Dennis Allen is probably gonna have to go, because the players have no respect for him."
Winston addressed the touchdown and validated his reason to change the play.
“We made a collective decision that we wanted to get one of our guys who they fight with – blood, sweat and tears, every game – in the end zone,” Winston said. “And I’m going to feel good about that.
"But I do apologize to Dennis because that was not his call."
Immediately after the game, Coach Smith addressed the score head-on.
"Why the f--- would you do that, man?" Smith appeared to yell at Allen as they approached each other on the field. "Why the f--- did you do that?! ... That's f---in' bullshit!"
Allen said he regretted the late touchdown, and he apologized to the Falcons.
"I'm going to start off by apologizing to Arthur Smith and the Falcons," Allen said in the post-game press conference. "That was not a play that we intended to run down there to finish out that game. That's not who we are. That's not how we operate. We should have taken a knee so I want to apologize to them."
Former Saints tight end Ben Watson also weighed in with a reply to the situation on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"If your players or assistant coaches don’t run the plays you call, you’ve already lost your team," Watson tweeted. "If you’re comfortable enough to tell the world about it, there’s no turning back."
Not long after the loss and unrelated to the exchange with Allen, the Falcons fired Smith hours after completing his third straight losing season with the Falcons.
Smith, the 41-year-old son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, finished with a record of 21-30. He went 7-10 each year.
Despite the win, the Saints failed to make the playoffs for the third straight season. The 9-8 overall record matches the team's 2021-22 record, the last season the Saints were coached by Sean Payton.
