It appears that Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Travis Hunter will get his interception ball after all.
Jaguars coach Liam Coen addressed the bizarre sequence of events during a 35-6 victory over the New England Patriots by saying that Hunter, who got his first career interception in the Jags' end zone in the second quarter to thwart a drive by the Patriots, will receive the ball after teammate Josh Hines-Allen tried in vain to get it from a sideline worker who picked the ball up after Hunter celebrated by spinning it on the ground, launching into a dance, then being mobbed by his teammates.
The man resisted any efforts by Hines-Allen to retrieve the ball and complained to another sideline worker, "he touched me." It's unclear whether he was an employee
of the New England Patriots or the NFL, or an independent contractor hired on a game-by-game basis, such as officials or chain crews.
The Times-Union has requested clarification from the Jaguars.
My POV of Travis Hunter’s 1st career interception
— Brandon Green🍀 (@BGreenReports) September 27, 2026
Weird interaction at the end between #Jaguars Josh Hines-Allen and the ball-guy when he tried to get the ball pic.twitter.com/7ByHNjK4D8
"I think we've been in communication with those guys over there, and I think they're getting it sorted out," Coen said on Sept. 28 during his usual Monday virtual news conference. "I can't say for certain if we have the actual ball or not … but I think it's all squared away. We'll get it taken care of."
Players who make milestone plays, such as their first touchdowns, interceptions, or fumble recoveries, are ordinarily allowed to keep the balls, even though defensive plays result in a player keeping a ball owned by the opposing team. Each team is allowed to put its own balls into play on offense, as long as all of them meet NFL specifications.
Teams historically do each other the courtesy of letting a defensive player keep the ball. In a recent Times-Union story on Jaguars players who have scored their first touchdowns, defensive players Hines-Allen, Antonio Johnson, Foye Oluokun and Jourdan Lewis all said they have the balls they used to score their first career TDs and didn't mention any difficulty obtaining and keeping the balls.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars coach Liam Coen said Travis Hunter will get his interception ball
