Miami Dolphins safety Bobby McCain will be disciplined by the team for a verbal confrontation with a 13-year-old boy and for allegedly spitting in the face of another Bills fan following Miami's loss at Buffalo.
Coach Brian Flores said he discussed the incident with McCain on Monday, the day after the Dolphins' 31-21 loss.
"I talked to Bobby about this this morning. He and I had a pretty open dialogue. I heard his side of the story. It's unfortunate. I feel like he needed to handle that situation better," Flores said. "We're going to discipline Bobby for that. We'll handle that discipline internally. Situations like this, we've got to handle those situations. Before I say that, we take those very seriously. There's a standard that we're trying to set here of professionalism, of the way we go about things, and we need to live up to that standard and we're going to. I talked to Bobby and again, I heard his side of the story but we need to handle the situation better."
Flores wouldn't say whether McCain will miss playing time as part of the discipline.
Erie County Sheriff's Office spokesman Scott Zylka confirmed that police are investigating fans' complaints, working with the Bills and the NFL in reviewing stadium security video. The Buffalo News first reported the investigation.
The fan, 28-year-old Dylan Wentland, told The Associated Press he was standing at the ledge overlooking the tunnel when McCain ran up and spit in his face following the game. Wentland said he and McCain exchanged words before the game when McCain twice threatened to spit at a teen, once before pregame warm-ups and a second time while heading out to the field before kickoff.
Wentland told the Buffalo News that McCain's threat to spit on the teen came after the boy shouted to the safety that he was "irrelevant."
McCain said in a statement that he regrets the incident.
"I regret the incident that happened with me and the fan yesterday after the game. I wish I would've handled myself better. I spoke with Coach Flores today. We're on the same page. We're looking forward to Pittsburgh and going through preparation," he said.
The Bills declined to comment. The NFL did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
ESPN's Cameron Wolfe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.