After back-to-back seasons under Robert Saleh filled with sloppy penalties and missed tackles, the New York Jets‘ HC Aaron Glenn made those problems an area of priority since he took over. He has put the players through live tackling drills and even cracked down hard on the players whenever an unnecessary penalty showed up in practice. Glenn seems to be pressing all the right buttons to fix the Jets’ issues, but it appears there is still frustration brewing.

The Jets fell to the Miami Dolphins on Monday with a 27-21 loss. With this, the Jets’ cornerback, Sauce Gardner, felt like the officials were targeting him, and the Jets’ reputation as a losing team is working against him. Glenn, without losing professionalism and sophistication, said, “Listen, Sauce said his piece and I’m not going to question what he has to say about that, but I do know this — we have to put ourselves in position to start getting those calls.”

Four games into the Aaron Glenn era, and the story still looks familiar. The Jets are yet to open their account this season. They are still dropping games because of the basics. But Glenn isn’t dodging any of the issues. The former Pro Bowl cornerback steps on the podium after every loss and owns his mistakes and assures to rectify them.

Considering the Jets, Gardner wasn’t the only Jet who was responsible for the “flying flags”. The team shelved 13 flags overall for 101 yards. “When it comes to the game today, very disappointing, very disappointing,” head coach Aaron Glenn said of such a blunder. “There’s no way you can win any game with 13 penalties and three turnovers. It just can’t happen.” 

Can Gardner be fined for voicing his concern?

There isn’t any official rule, but it is mentioned in the policy manual of the NFL that criticism of officiating in the league will be considered detrimental. But this leaves a very vague and unclear stance, to which the league will fine any player or club. There have been a couple of instances in recent history. Former Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress was fined $35,000 in 2010. Then-Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher was fined $12,500 in 2006.

Usually, the players or the teams are exempted and get a leeway for those who pop off heat in the postgame moment. But if the comments come in the following days after the “incident”, like Gardner did, then they are likely to be punished. So yes, Gardner can fly under the radar of an NFL punishment.

“I’m personally frustrated,” Gardner told ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “I feel like me personally, us not winning, I watch football all the time and I just feel like…I don’t know if this is wrong to say…but I think I get called for more stuff just based off of us just not winning. I watch these winning programs and there’s some egregious things and it don’t get called, letting the players play.” Well, some consider that his comments don’t make sense for a sole reason.

Monday night’s game was a battle between two teams, both with a 0-3 record. If it were a matchup with top-tier teams such as the Eagles or the Steelers, his points might be understandable. But while his comments might have earned him some brownie points with the Jets’ fans calling out the refs, this may bring him under scrutiny.