The obscene gesture for which Jets coach Rex Ryan was fined $50,000 came in reaction to a fan's heckling that included spitting, according to FoxSports.com's Jay Glazer.
Ryan, who this season led the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in his first year as an NFL head coach, "showed the greatest restraint," Glazer said Thursday on New York radio station WFAN.
Glazer said he saw the incident that occurred Saturday night at a mixed martial arts event in South Florida.
Ryan was caught in a widely circulated cell-phone photograph extending his middle finger, presumably at the heckling fan.
It wasn't clear why Glazer waited until late this week to reveal the details. The Jets issued the $50,000 fine Tuesday; the NFL on Wednesday announced Ryan would not be subject to any discipline from the league, which had investigated the incident.
"This was a guy who was going out of his way to incite a fight, to incite some sort of violence to get the head coach of the Jets to ruin his job and to really put Rex in a place he didn't need to be," Glazer said in the radio interview.
Glazer said he and Ryan were with 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis and Eagles defensive end Trent Cole.
"I mean it was unbelievable, and he just kept going on and on," Glazer said of the heckler. "Then he said, 'I hate you. I hope you die, you fat piece of crap,' and then spit at him."