A college football referee came away bloodied and scarred by a wild melee that erupted between the East Carolina Pirates and the North Carolina State Wolfpack at the Military Bowl on Saturday.
The trouble started after NC State defensive back Tamarcus Cooley shoved ECU WR Yannick Smith with 38 seconds remaining in the game. Both benches cleared, and both teams went at it. During the fight, a player’s helmet hit the official in the face.
The fight resulted in the ejection of eight players: three from East Carolina and five from North Carolina State. The official announced the numbers of all eight players.
After the game, North Carolina State head coach Dave Doeren expressed his “embarrassment” at his team’s behavior.
“First, congratulations to ECU on the win,” Doeren said in his statement. “They earned it.
“I’d also like to apologize for our football team for how that ended.
“I’m embarrassed as a coach. And I know our players are, too. That’s not how people in this program, players in this program, staff in this program want anything to do with something like that. And to me, it’s a terrible response to something that happened to one of our players, and there’s no excuses for it.
“And so, I apologize to ECU and their team.”