NEW ORLEANS -- First, it was the Joker. Now it's the gold-clad football snatcher.
One week after New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham was "groped up" during a leap into the Superdome's end zone seats by a person wearing a Joker costume, another Saints fan drew the ire of at least two Cincinnati Bengals fans on Sunday.
Midway through the third quarter, Cincinnati tight end Jermaine Gresham caught a 1-yard touchdown pass that put the Bengals up 19-3 when he jogged over to the end zone wall. As he approached, two female Bengals fans -- one dressed in a black A.J. Green jersey and the other in an orange Bengals T-shirt -- had just jogged down the section's steps to the edge of wall. They were excitedly pleading for the ball when Gresham complied.
But what none of them, not Gresham nor the women asking for the ball, had expected was the male Saints fan lurking nearby in the first row.
As the ball left Gresham's hands, the Saints fan, identified by the Cincinnati Enquirer as a man named Tony Williams, leaped in front of the two women. As the one in the Green jersey -- identified by the Enquirer as Versailles, Kentucky, native Christa Barrett -- caught the flip, Williams snatched the ball from her. In the same motion, he sat back down, putting the ball underneath his right arm.
It stayed there the rest of the game.
"He should be ashamed of himself," Gresham told a reporter from The Associated Press. "And you can put that on the record."
That was a telling quote for Gresham, a player who typically shies away from talking to reporters. He's permitted Cincinnati media to talk with him on the record only once this season.
Other Bengals players told ESPN.com they were flabbergasted by the snatch.
"That was dirty!" said offensive tackle Andre Smith, who watched the incident from the sideline.
The woman in the orange shirt, Barrett's friend, Cara Meadows, told the Enquirer how firm Williams was in wanting to keep the football.
"He kept saying, 'No ma'am,'" Meadows said. "'No ma'am.'"
Once the game ended, the Saints gave Barrett another football.
Williams kept his.
"It's very simple," Williams told the Enquirer. "I caught the football.
"I didn't mean to hit that young lady," he said. "I was just reaching for the football."
Cameras from CBS, the network broadcasting the game, caught the snatch.
What they didn't catch, however, was the audible frustration fans in the section had during the post-point-after attempt timeout. As the teams prepared for the ensuing kickoff, fans in the section chanted, "Give her the ball! Give her the ball!" The chants could be heard throughout the building.
The catch was the second scoring play Gresham was part of. He also recovered his own fumble in the end zone in the first quarter after catching a 12-yard pass.
