Nibbling issue (updated)

I was away from my computer most of yesterday so I'm a bit late on this story. But there's an angle on it I haven't seen covered, and if that isn't enough to justify a post, it's an important angle, damn it. Here's the story (with picture):

What was initially reported as a "feigned head butt" by Jermain Defoe upon West Ham midfielder Javier Mascherano turned out to be an incident which the press have happily blown out of all proportion.

After being hauled down cynically for the third time in the first half, Defoe, whilst on the ground a yard or two away from the miscreant, did a bum shuffle across the gap, and sank his teeth into Mascherano's upper arm.

Now nobody but the two parties knows whether Defoe "playfully nibbled" Mascherano, as suggested by Martin Jol, but what is certain is that the Argentinean won no friends through his melodramatic collapse, which could have been no more emphatic, had he been struck with a fatal dose of the bubonic plague.

Defoe appears to bite Mascherano, and Martin Jol says it's only a nibble. And that's a defence? Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against nibbling or even being nibbled - in the appropriate circumstances and with consent from the relevant parties. But otherwise? Is Jol wanting to suggest that people - even footballers - may go around playfully (or comically) nibbling those with no desire to be nibbled? The football authorities must seek a clarification forthwith.

Update at 2.50 PM: Ahh... it's the 'Chewbacca defense'.