A college football referee returned bloodied and bruised from a wild melee between the East Carolina Pirates and North Carolina State Wolfpack in the Military Bowl on Saturday.
The problems began when NC State defensive back Tamarcus Cooley pushed 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’s face.
The fight resulted in eight players being ejected: 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 “embarrassment” at his team’s behavior.
“First of all, congratulations to ECU on the win,” Doeran said in his statement. “He earned it.
“I would also like to apologize to our football team for how this ended.
“I am embarrassed as a coach. And I know our players are too. The people in this program, the players in this program, the staff in this program don’t want to do anything like this. And to me, that’s a terrible reaction to something that happened to one of our players, and there’s no excuse for it.
“And so, I apologize to ECU and their team.”
