Police appear to have used pepper spray to break up a violent postgame brawl between Ohio State and Michigan State.
A Fox Sports broadcast captured Wolverines Tavierre Dunlap and Jason Hewlett in tears on the sideline after they appeared to be pepper-sprayed by police on the field.
Pepper spray was used to quell a skirmish after the Wolverines defeated the No. 2 Buckeyes 13-10 on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, according to multiple reports.
Other footage showed University of Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham being pepper sprayed during the chaos.
A third angle shows a police officer spraying pepper spray on the Ohio State team as they try to quell the skirmish.
Pat Ford, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, said he was caught in the crossfire.
“I just got some used pepper spray.” Forde wrote to X.
The scuffle broke out shortly after Michigan defeated Ohio State when Wolverines players attempted to plant a flag over the Buckeye logo at midfield.
“I don't know the specifics, but I know they're going to put a flag on our field and our players won't let that happen,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said after the game. That was my intention,” he said. “We're going to look into exactly what happened, but this is our field. The fact that we lost the game was certainly embarrassing, but we have proud men on this team who weren't going to let that happen. .”
Several players were seen running wild as security, police and team staff tried to separate them.
“When you have a game this good, you hate to see something like that after the game,” University of Michigan running back Karel Mullins said. “It’s bad for the sport, it’s bad for college football, but at the end of the day, some guys have to learn how to lose.
“You can't fight just because you lost a game. We had 60 minutes, four quarters to fight that much. And now people are talking and fighting. But that's wrong. It's just bad for the game. It's classless in my opinion. People have to do better.”
The ugly scene lasted for several minutes, then the mood subsided.
“It was an unnecessary gesture by the Wolverines,” Fox play-by-play man Gus Johnson said. “They won the game, so there's no need to be rude.”
