Richard Sherman has an emoji response for anyone who thinks he should have been flagged against the Bills

Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman wasn’t penalized for unnecessary roughness after taking out Bills kicker Dan Carpenter at the end of the first half of Monday Night Football. On Tuesday, Sherman shared some insight via his Twitter account to illustrate why he believes the play did not warrant a flag.

The photo shows that Sherman has his hand on the ball prior to the kick and before Sherman makes contact with Carpenter.

After the game, Sherman explained the situation from his perspective to ESPN’s Lisa Salters.

“I went straight for the ball, I didn’t go for the kicker, I slid for the ball,” Sherman said. “He should have not kicked it. You know? Maybe he wanted to, I went for the ball, that’s where I went. So when the ball gets tipped on the play, the rule is when it’s tipped, there’s no flag.”

Sherman wasn’t fouled for unnecessary roughness because the officials were blowing the play dead on account of Sherman being offsides, according to referee Walt Anderson.

“We were shutting the play down, that would be my call,” Anderson said. “I just didn’t feel like the actions and the contact, because we were shutting the play down, warranted a foul.”

The NFL rules state that “a member of the receiving team may not run into or rough a kicker ... unless contact is incidental to and after he had touched ball in flight.”

Because the ball was not in flight when Sherman made contact with it, many people, including the NFL’s head of officiating, Dean Blandino, have criticized the officials’ decision to not issue an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Sherman wasn’t penalized, and the referees affirmed the decision to not throw an additional flag on this play. Sherman clearly thinks that was the correct call.