Packers' Josh Jacobs says hands-behind-back touchdown celebration honored a gospel song

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs said he was honoring a gospel song, not mocking his recent arrest, when he briefly put his hands behind his back while celebrating a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of Thursday night's 27-19 win over the Carolina Panthers. Jacobs said he and teammates, including Savion Williams, planned the celebration before his season debut, modeling it on the gospel song Break Every Chain. Some viewers watching on television believed he was simulating being handcuffed, and the clip drew attention on social media. The gesture came in Jacobs's second game since returning from the commissioner's exempt list, where he was placed after charges were filed against him in August over a May altercation in which his then-girlfriend said he threw her to the ground. Last month he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and criminal damage to property charges.

Left-leaning sources, represented by The Guardian US, lead with Jacobs's denial that the gesture mocked his arrest. They feature his account of the celebration's origins and his remark that teammates did it with him, and they note the social media reaction while placing the arrest and plea in background. The right-leaning Washington Times uses a similar gospel-song headline but says the celebration drew criticism, a framing the Guardian does not use. Its excerpt repeats the explanation and touchdown details, so the two sides agree on the core facts and Jacobs's account, and differ mainly in how they describe the reaction. The alternative source ESPN takes a separate angle, reporting that records show three other women contacted police with allegations against Jacobs after his arrest, a fact absent from the other excerpts.