If you’ve paid close attention to the news on Monday you’ve probably seen quite a few reports about what happened over the weekend on a United Airlines flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville. In case you missed it, a passenger was forcibly removed from the overbooked flight after nobody volunteered to give up their seats.
Since then, United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a public response to what happened on that flight and in it he apologized for customers being “re-accommodated.” As you can see in the attached tweet below from Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas, he didn’t appreciate Munoz’s choice of words and he included a picture of him “re-accommodating” former Steelers linebacker James Farrior during a 2009 regular season game for effect.
Dear #united, I had to “re-accommodate” someone once pic.twitter.com/MP3ZJDv85m
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) April 10, 2017
Now, I went back and looked at that game and while Thomas wasn’t flagged for illegal hands to the face on Farrior on the play in question, the Browns tackle was flagged for holding Steelers linebacker James Harrison during a 2nd and 6 play late in the third quarter. The hold was needed after Harrison had “re-accommodated” both Thomas and former Browns offensive lineman Hank Fraley.
While I’m not totally certain due to camera angles, it sure looks like the play that Thomas “re-accommodated” Farrior on happened just two plays after the tackle was flagged for holding. That play resulted in Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons strip-sacking Browns then-quarterback Derrick Anderson and the loose football was ultimately recovered by Harrison.
So, to recap, while Thomas was busy illegally “re-accommodating” Farrior, it certainly appears as though his quarterback was being “re-accommodated” by the Steelers defense. The Steelers, by the way, went on to win that game 27-14.
Is there a “re-accommodating” lesson to be learned here? I’ll let all of you decide that.
