A two-point conversion attempt is innocent enough and shouldn't draw a lot of attention.
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone, however, found himself once again answering questions on his decision to go for two with his team up 31-12 over the New York Jets in the waning seconds of the matchup.
Marrone explained Sunday after the game that "the chart said go for two" in that situation, but that hasn't stopped the speculation that he was attempting to run up the score on the Jets.
And for that reason, Marrone took exception to the fallout.
"What pisses me off, honestly, people that do know me know how much I respect the game, and I have a ton of respect for coach [Todd] Bowles and [Jets general manager] Mike Maccagnan is one of my good friends," Marrone told reporters Monday, via the Jaguars' official website. "And whatever happened in the past is the past. It had nothing to do with the people or the game itself that's on the field. For me, that is exactly what happened. Right, wrong or indifferent, and I would never do anything like that. I just wouldn't because I respect the game too much. It has nothing to do with any of the other crap that people bring up."
Marrone, of course, interviewed for the Jets head coaching job in 2014 before the team went with Bowles.
Nevertheless, Marrone on Monday reinforced his decision to attempt the two-point conversion instead of kicking the extra point was football-related to go up 21 points and not an attempt to send a message.
"When you change and you go upstairs, and we have all that stuff, it's just what we normally always have done," Marrone told reporters. "It never even came, we said 2. We're going for 2. That was it, to get to 21. Hey, are the odds of winning the game? Yeah, I could understand that.
"If I had to do it all over and knew this was going to happen, yeah, I wish someone would have said something because the one thing I don't want to do is get my character attacked, which has happened in the past and happens again."
