A college football referee came away bloodied and bruised from a violent brawl that broke out between the East Carolina Pirates and North Carolina State Wolfpack at the Military Bowl on Saturday.
The trouble began after North Carolina State defensive back Tamarcus Cooley shoved ECU wide receiver Yannick Smith with 38 seconds left in the game. Both benches were cleared and both teams were in the game. During the match, a player's helmet hit the referee in the face.
As a result of the fight, eight players were ejected, three from East Carolina and five from North Carolina State. Officials announced the jersey numbers of all eight players.
After the game, North Carolina State head coach Dave Doeren expressed “confusion” at his team's actions.
“First, I would like to congratulate ECU on their victory,” Doeren said in a statement. “They won it.
“I also want to apologize to our football team for how it ended.
“It's embarrassing as a coach. And I know our players are too. The people of this program, the players of this program, the staff of this program want nothing to do with that.” And to me, this is a terrible response to what happened to one of our players, and there is no excuse.
“Therefore, we apologize to ECU and its team.”
