Rams tackle Alaric Jackson punched Buffalo’s Bradley Chubb after a Monday Night Football overtime loss, and his prior personal-conduct record now raises the prospect of league discipline.
Cameras caught the confrontation near midfield after the Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-34 in overtime at SoFi Stadium, turning a hard-fought finish into an ugly postgame scene.
The New York Post reported that Jackson threw a punch at Bills edge rusher Bradley Chubb following a face-to-face exchange, then got pulled into a second scuffle as he left the field before teammates and others broke it up.
The Sun described the same sequence: Jackson was exchanging jerseys with Bills defensive tackle Deone Walker when Chubb appeared to say something in Jackson’s direction. Jackson closed the distance, punched Chubb in the face, and knocked his hat clean off.
Rams tight end Colby Parkinson dragged Jackson away. Walker grabbed Chubb by the horse collar to end the confrontation. A second flare-up followed as Jackson headed off, with Chubb restrained by teammates and Myles Garrett stepping in to help separate the sides.
The game itself was already tense. Bills kicker Tyler Bass sealed the win with a walk-off field goal. Earlier, a James Cook fumble had put Buffalo in a precarious spot before a blocked field goal reopened the path to victory.
By the time most opposing players were embracing, the mood on the field had flipped. What started as postgame respect turned into punches in front of the remaining crowd and the national broadcast audience.
Chubb addressed the incident in the locker room afterward and framed it as a heat-of-the-moment blowup after a close game.
"It’s just emotions, you know what I mean? Emotional game. It was a close game."
He added that he chose not to swing back once the first punch landed.
"And, you know, they always catch the second guy. So, I let him swing. And then my teammates held me back, and I just chilled."
Chubb also said tempers flared and that Buffalo had already moved on.
"Like I said, it was emotional game. Tempers got flared. But it is what it is. We flushed it and we onto next week."
The punch is not happening in a vacuum. Jackson was arrested in June on suspicion of felony domestic violence. That case went into pre-filing diversion and no charges were filed. He also served a two-game NFL suspension in 2024 for a personal-conduct policy violation.
That history is why the postgame hit carries weight beyond one bad moment. The league already polices player conduct off the field. A clear punch on the field, after an overtime loss, gives the NFL a fresh on-camera incident to review, and raises the chance Jackson could be unavailable for the Rams’ next game.
Bills safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson took the matter public on X, posting: “So what we gone do about dude hitting Chubb!” Gardner-Johnson had been in the headlines the prior week after comments about a New England Patriots player following Buffalo’s Week 4 defeat.
No injuries, arrests, or fines were announced in the immediate reporting on this specific altercation. That does not erase what viewers saw. A player closed distance and threw a punch after the final whistle while others were shaking hands and swapping jerseys.
Chubb’s decision not to retaliate kept the scene from turning into a full brawl. Parkinson and Walker’s interventions did the same. The league’s next move will show whether a documented punch, from a player with a recent conduct record, draws real consequences or another shrug.
Football is physical. Punching an opponent after the game is not part of the deal, and fans have every right to expect the NFL to treat it that way.
