Cardinals fining coach Jonathan Gannon $100,000 for sideline incident with Emari Demercado, per report

The Arizona Cardinals are fining coach Jonathan Gannon $100,000 for his sideline interaction with running back Emari Demercado during Sunday’s 22-21 loss to the Tennessee Titans, NFL Media reported on Tuesday. Gannon will face no further action from the league.

“We have been in contact with the NFLPA, and the club which addressed the matter. There is no further action from the league,” the league said in a statement.

After entering the fourth quarter with a 21-6 lead over Tennessee, Demercado burst through the Titans’ defense and was well on his way toward scoring a 72-yard touchdown. However, Demercado dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line. The ball went out of the end zone, resulting in a touchback and possession for Tennessee.

Cameras captured Arizona’s coach ripping into Demercado and appearing to make contact with the running back on the sideline after the play. 

On Monday, the day after the loss, Gannon apologized for the incident.

“Yeah, I woke up this morning and didn’t feel great about it, honestly,” Gannon said. “So in the team meeting I addressed it. I apologized to Emari, apologized to the team and I just told them I kind of let the moment of what happened get the better of me there. 

“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. So it’s not really who I am, who I want to be, and I told the guys that today. So it’s a mistake by me andit’s just like everybody in there, everybody made some type of mistake yesterday, which culminates to why we didn’t win the game, and we can’t let it happen moving forward.” 

Demercado’s fumble began a chain of events that led to a brutal loss for the Cardinals, who are now 2-3 with three consecutive losses coming via a field goal on the last play of the game. The Cardinals started the 2025 campaign with back-to-back wins over the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers. Arizona faces the Indianapolis Colts on the road in Week 6.

Gannon is the first NFL coach fined for an altercation with a player since Bruce Arians, then with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was hit with a $50,000 fine for an incident with safety Andrew Adams.