It was a friendly inquiry aimed at putting Steven Taylor at ease, but one that again underlines how referees are not quite the ogres so many would have us believe.
Taylor's brief chat with Mark Halsey, a man whose life experience puts football into perspective, proved an eye-opener into how the men in black regularly deal with the more repugnant side of the beautiful game.
"I spoke to Mark Halsey and he asked me how I was feeling in the wake of the Sunderland game," said Newcastle's Taylor of his explosive comments before last month's Wear-Tyne derby.
"I said there had been no problems at all, it was just a bit of banter, but it was nice of him to ask. I think he was just trying to put me at ease."
How insignificant were the repercussions of Taylor's anti-Sunderland jibes was soon highlighted by how the conversation developed.
"I didn't realise, but Mark then went on to tell me he gets death threats," said Taylor. "Not just to him, but to his family. I might be a bit naive, but I didn't know that kind of thing happened, so it was a shock to me."
Halsey, 51, returned to refereeing two-and-a-half years ago after a successful battle against throat cancer, a condition that also affects his wife, Michelle.
For having the temerity to send off Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey in a game against Manchester United two months ago, Halsey was subjected to sub-human abuse on Twitter by trolls who wished him a revisit by the life-threatening disease.
Taylor added: "He said they were talking about his family. His kids. Talking about putting a bullet in their heads. That's too far.
"Mark was trying to make me feel better about my situation by telling me what had happened to him. For me, that's another level.
"He gets the abuse and threats simply down to decisions he makes. I asked him how he dealt with it, and he said you've just got to get on with it and not let it get to you.
"That must be incredibly hard.
"I don't know how you can shrug that kind of thing off, I'm not that kind of person.
"He's a brave guy first for what he's been through in his life, and then for having to deal with what people have said about his family. What can you do about things like that? I honestly don't know."
Even before his meeting with Halsey, who was fourth official at Newcastle's home game with West Brom, Taylor appears to have carried an appreciation of referees sadly lacking in many of his counterparts, whose behaviour has helped to strain the relationship between the two parties to breaking point.
"There's massive pressure put on referees," Taylor added. "I think it's getting even harder for them. We've spoken in the dressing room about how, in basketball and ice-hockey, they have extra referees, but even with that in football, I don't think you could ever win."
The 26-year-old added: "Referees deserve a bit more credit. In our last game against West Brom, Hatem Ben Arfa felt he'd been fouled and wanted a free-kick, but Chris Foy played an advantage that led to us scoring the winner.
"Something like that goes largely unreported but he deserves credit for it. Quite often, people only want to see the bad side of refs, but that was great refereeing.
"I think I'm pretty good when it comes to respecting referees. If I get a decision against me, I think, 'What the hell?' but I never complain.
"You never see me going up to a ref shouting with arms waving. I try to treat refs how I'd like to be treated."
At present, his disciplinary record largely backs up his words.
In more than 200 games, the last of his three red card was almost six years ago.
A total of 36 bookings works out at one almost every six games, which is better than average for Premier League defenders.
When Steven Taylor insisted he would rather collect stamps than play for Sunderland, he knew philately would get him nowhere.
His quip was lost in translation for some Black Cats fans, who responded with chants of 'We wish you were dead' during last month's Wear-Tyne derby.
But the Newcastle defender insists he will not change his style, especially after getting the thumbs up from the majority of Sunderland supporters, in addition to Martin O'Neill and his squad.
He said: "I think Sunderland fans know what I'm like. It was tongue in cheek, a bit of banter. Maybe some of the supporters got caught up in the emotion of it all.
"The Sunderland players knew I never meant anything by it.
"I've played with the likes of Adam Johnson, Craig Gardner and Lee Cattermole for the Under-21s, and I spoke to Titus Bramble and a few of their lads after the game.
"They know what I'm about, I even shook hands with Martin O'Neill.
"As for the 'We wish you were dead' chants', I think some of their supporters were just a bit stuck for words for one of their songs.
"I had a bit of a laugh with them. I thought the 48,000 of them were great.
"They never once shut up during the game, supporting their side, and as a player I love that level of passion.
"I've seen Sunderland fans since the game and they've shaken my hand. They appreciate the banter, the way I tried to get things up for the game.
"I think the worst thing I could have done was to take my top off when I warmed up down the side of the pitch at the Stadium of Light during the game.
"I don't think that went down too well but I sincerely apologise to any Sunderland fan who felt I over-stepped the mark.
"I wasn't being malicious, I just wanted to have a laugh."
Luis Suarez is a footballing Mr Marmite - you either love him or hate him - and it seems to be mainly the latter.
Taylor knows which camp he falls into, and it might come as a bit of a surprise that the centre-back is a fully paid-up member of the Suarez fan club.
Newcastle travel to Liverpool on Sunday, and although he is likely to start on the bench, the Toon defender knows he'll have his work cut out if called upon to try and shackle the livewire Uruguayan.
"He's a brilliant player," Taylor insisted. "Some of the goals he scores are unbelievable, and as a defender, he's one of the trickiest centre-forwards out there you'll come across.
"He's very direct. He just gets the ball and it's attack, attack, attack.
"The biggest threat from him comes when your team is attacking.
"That's when he's at his most dangerous because of the swift way he can break. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time and if you're off your guard for even a split-second, he'll punish you."
There's little chance of Taylor following the example of Everton manager David Moyes before the Anfield clash by dredging-up the way the striker sometimes questionably falls to earth.
Far from it.
In a bizarre way, Taylor has a grudging respect for any forward who 'earns' a crucial penalty or free-kick at his expense.
He added: "People try to target Suarez because of how good he is. They'll do anything they can to make him not do something that gives his team the advantage.
"Not just talking about Suarez, but if strikers can fool everyone else, it's clever from them. At the end of the day, if you're the defender and you allow them to do that, then everyone will look at you and say you've made the mistake.
"That's why our manager tells us that if you're in the box, you touch their player and he goes down, then you've only got yourself to blame."
After his cringe-worthy 'swan dive' when he went down clutching his chest like he'd been shot in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid a sending off for handball against Aston Villa in 2005, Taylor knows he's be on rocky ground having too much of a pop at anyone for going to ground rather too easily.
He added: "I still get stick for the one on the goal-line against Villa. But in my defence, I was only a teenager at the time and I was trying desperately not to get a red card.
"As for diving in general, I honestly don't think you can take it out of the game. Because of the mentality of some players, they'll do it."
And peaking of diving...
Michael Owen's reaction was a little prickly to say the least when some of his recent comments were taken as an admission that he's gone to ground to win penalties.
So what does his former Newcastle team-mate Taylor think? After all, you don't mark someone in training during the striker's ill-fated four-year stint on Tyneside - minus Owen's lengthy injury absences, of course - without being able to form a pretty accurate opinion of them.
"He would do it (go to ground) in training," Taylor insisted of the former England international, 32, who now plays for Stoke.
Owen's know-how would see him regularly get the better of his would-be shadow on the training pitch.
The defender recalls: "As soon as the ball came into him and there was contact, he'd be down and looking around, even with the slightest contact.
"He'd get the free-kick, walk past and say 'unlucky mate'."
* NEWCASTLE target Moussa Sissoko would jump at the chance to link-up with Alan Pardew's side.
The Geordies are set to open transfer talks in January for the £4m-rated Toulouse midfielder.
He said: "To play in the Premier League would be a dream come true."
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