Rams WR Puka Nacua apologizes for antisemitic gesture, adds more controversy after career game

SEATTLE (AP) — Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua’s tumultuous Thursday started with an apology, and ended with more controversial remarks.

In between, he had a career-best performance.

Nacua apologized Thursday for performing a gesture that plays upon antisemitic tropes on an internet livestream, then stayed in the spotlight Tuesday night as he caught 12 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns in the Rams’ 38-37 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

After the game, he expressed frustration on social media with a post that referenced referees before removing it.

“It’s just a lack of awareness and just some frustration,” Nacua said about the postgame post. “I know there are moments when I feel, man, you watch other games and you see the calls some guys get, and you wish you could get some of those -- but that’s just how football is played.”

Earlier Thursday, Nacua posted his apology in an Instagram post.

“I had no idea this act was antisemitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people,” he said. “I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people.”

The statement is posted on a blue square, the logo for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate.

Nacua appeared on a livestream earlier in the week hosted by internet personality Adin Ross, who suggested that Nacua perform the gesture as a touchdown celebration. The football player said he would and demonstrated how it would look.

Nacua’s comments on the livestream and after the game overshadowed his performance in postgame discussion, but Rams coach Sean McVay dismissed the idea it was a distraction as Los Angeles prepared for the important game against their division rival.

“It wasn’t a distraction at all,” McVay said. “Did you think his play showed he was distracted? I didn’t think so either. He went off today.”

In addition to setting a career high for receiving yards, Nacua reached 4,000 yards in career receiving in 42 games, tying him with Odell Beckham Jr. and Justin Jefferson for the fastest. According to the team, he also became the third receiver ever to have 160 or more receiving yards in three straight games.

California congressman Eric Swalwell was among those who criticized Nacua, saying it was especially insensitive in light of the attack in Sydney, Australia, that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration.

“The Los Angeles Jewish community is on edge after the Bondi Beach massacre,” Swallwell wrote on X. “He promises an antisemitic touchdown dance for his Thursday night game. He should apologize or be dropped.”

The NFL issued a statement condemning “all forms of discrimination and derogatory behavior directed towards any group or individual.”

“The continuing rise of antisemitism must be addressed across the world, and the NFL will continue to stand with our partners in this fight,” the league said. “Hatred has no place in our sport or society.”

Nacua also criticized NFL referees on the livestream, calling them “the worst” and saying they make incorrect calls because “they want to be on TV, too.”

After the game Thursday, McVay echoed Nacua’s apology.

“He was very apologetic,” McVay said. “He’s a young guy that’s a great kid that’s continuing to learn about just the platform that he has. I love him, we’re going to continue to put our arm around him to help him learn and grow, but we never want to do things that ever offend anybody and I know he feels that same way.”

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Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua scores a touchdown during overtime in an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (12) scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (12) runs with the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua runs for a touchdown during overtime in an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua scores a touchdown during overtime in an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (12) reacts after a catch during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (12) reacts after a first down during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Katie Chin)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Investigations into the Brown University mass shooting and the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor shifted Thursday when authorities discovered evidence they say indicates they were committed by the same man, who was then found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The attacker at Brown killed two students and wounded nine others in an engineering building on Saturday. Some 50 miles (80 kilometers) away MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was killed Monday night in his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

The FBI had earlier said it knew of no links between the cases.

Here are some answers to questions about the attacks and investigations:

Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility after a six-day search that spanned several New England states.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. He was admitted to the graduate school to study physics beginning in September 2000.

“He has no current affiliation with the university,” she said.

Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa. He eventually obtained legal permanent residence status in September 2017. His last known residence was in Miami.

There are still “a lot of unknowns” in regard to motive, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom,” he said.

Loureiro, 47, who was married, joined MIT in 2016 and was named last year to lead the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he worked to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of MIT’s largest labs, had more than 250 people working across seven buildings when he took the helm. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.

Valente and Loureiro attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, Foley said. Loureiro graduated from the physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal’s premier engineering school, in 2000, according to his MIT faculty page.

The same year, Neves Valente was let go from a position at the Lisbon university, according to an archive of a termination notice from the school’s then-president in February 2000.

Authorities released several security videos of a person thought might have carried out the Brown attack. They showed the individual standing, walking and even running along the streets, but their face is masked or turned away in all of them.

Police say a witness then gave investigators a key tip: he saw someone who looked like the person of interest with a Nissan sedan displaying Florida plates. That enabled Providence police officers to tap into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated around the city by surveillance company Flock Safety. Those cameras track license plates and other vehicle details.

After leaving Rhode Island for Massachusetts, Providence officials said the suspect stuck a Maine license plate over the rental car’s plate to help conceal his identity.

Video footage showed Neves Valente entering an apartment building near Loureiro’s. About an hour later, he was seen entering the New Hampshire storage facility where he was later found dead, Foley said.

The two students who were killed and the nine others wounded were studying for a final in a first-floor classroom in an older section of the engineering building when the shooter walked in and opened fire.

Those killed were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Cook, whose funeral is Monday, was active in her Alabama church and served as vice president of the Brown College Republicans. Umurzokov’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a child, and he aspired to be a doctor.

As for the wounded, six were in stable condition Thursday, officials said. The other three were discharged.

Neves Valiente gained permanent residency status through a green card lottery program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X.

She said President Donald Trump ordered her to pause the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services program.

The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the United States, many of them in Africa.

The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Kimberlee Kruesi, Amanda Swinhart, Robert F. Bukaty, Matt O’Brien and Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Michael Casey in Boston; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington.

This combo image made with photos provided by the FBI and the Providence, Rhode Island, Police Department shows a person of interest in the shooting that occurred at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (FBI/Providence Police Department via AP)

A memorial of flowers and signs lay outside the Barus and Holley engineering building at Brown University, on Hope Street in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt OBrien)

A Brown University student leaves campus, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, after all classes, exams and papers were canceled for the rest of the Fall 2025 semester following the school shooting, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)