PITTSBURGH -- Miami Dolphins safety Bobby McCain was suspended for the first quarter of the team's Monday night contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers as discipline for his confrontation with Buffalo Bills fans last week, including a claim that McCain allegedly spit on a fan and threatened to spit on another.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores said he spoke with McCain about the incident following the Dolphins' 31-21 loss at Buffalo, and Flores decided McCain would be disciplined. Flores maintained that discipline would be handled internally, and now it's clear that a one-quarter suspension was at least part of it.
It's unclear if McCain, a team captain, was also fined as an additional part of the punishment.
Jomal Wiltz started in place of McCain, who entered the game in the second quarter.
McCain said in a statement last week that he regretted the incident.
"I wish I would've handled myself better," McCain said.
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.
"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."