Ohio coach tackles drunk fan on field

Submitted by UMfan21 on

Seriously, better form than half our defense.

 

 

LordGrantham

September 28th, 2014 at 12:39 AM ^

He had no legal authority to tackle him in the first place. Trespassing onto the field is not a felony, thus there was no grounds for a citizens' arrest, and there was really no reasonable belief that the man was about to inflict bodily harm on either the coach or any third party. It was just an idiotic, impulse move by a guy used to hitting people.

LordGrantham

September 28th, 2014 at 12:47 AM ^

Well as far as the law is concerned, I'm not sure how. I suppose there is an intelligible third party self-defense argument to made, but it seems pretty crappy to me.  Unless there is some statutory authority that I'm not aware of, which is possible, there was no legal basis for the coach to act as he did.  Maybe BISB can clarify, because I'm an environmental lawyer and I'm not seeing it.

freejs

September 28th, 2014 at 12:47 AM ^

There's definitely an argument. He's a coach and responsible for the safety of his players which is being threatened by a dude he doesn't know who may be any level of impossible to determine dangerous. 

There is then a question of whether or not his conduct is excessive in relation to the danger of the situation. But that's usually a tough argument to make. 

LordGrantham

September 28th, 2014 at 12:50 AM ^

And a skinny guy running across the field and making no movements torwad the sidelines presents an imminent threat of bodily harm to fully-padded FBS football players?  That seems like a tough argument to make.  Third-party defense isn't "hey, it's possible this guy might be dangerous so I'll tackle him by the neck."

a2_electricboogaloo

September 28th, 2014 at 2:08 AM ^

If a person were to do an act of terrorism like that at a sporting event, why would they run on the field?  That's the part of the stadium with the lowest concentration of people and is constantly being surveyed by 80,000+ people.  If a bomb were to go off there, damage would be relatively low, although still tragic.  On the other hand, the stands are filled with tens of thousands of people closely packed together not paying attention to their immediate surroundings, a bomb there would be much higher damage and have much much greater casualties.

So I'd be much more worried about a person in the stands than a person running across the field.

freejs

September 28th, 2014 at 3:02 AM ^

could easily be packing a knife - he's already made the erratic decision to jump into the middle of an actual play - so you have an, at minimum a person exhibiting very strange decision-making skills. Add in a knife, and you have a very different threat. And the coach doesn't know if he has a knife or some other object. 

Admittedly, this is slightly more of a threat in a game like baseball where the athletes have no padding, but no, it's not something you want to chance. 

The guy who attacked Monica Seles was no impressive specimen. 

 

hazardc

September 28th, 2014 at 12:42 AM ^

As much as I want to talk badly of Ohio

 

 

I love this video, and he's not going to get into any trouble. Just look at what James Harrison did to the Browns fan that ran onto the field... leveled him, no trouble.

 

Two Hearted Ale

September 28th, 2014 at 1:02 AM ^

I was at that game. The fan was looked like a player running down the field so at first I thought it was just a terrible false start. Then the coach ran out on the field and I thought the coach had gone nuts...Woody style. As the fan got closer it became clear what was happening. The coach squared him up text book perfect and took him to the ground about as hard as I've ever seen someone taken down. He didn't stop when the kid was on the ground either. As quick as he threw him down he picked him back up and dragged him off the field.

GoBlueinOhio

September 28th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^

we no longer call osu "ohio" that is brady talk.. want nothing to do with him. lets remove ourselves from his bashing. We are not in the position to call anyone anything except by their proper name. 

ThadMattasagoblin

September 28th, 2014 at 12:51 AM ^

Since Bo called them Ohio occasionally and that is what they are known by in central Ohio I am going to continue calling them that. It's not a Brady Hoke thing and it annoys the heck out of them for some reason.

Urban Warfare

September 28th, 2014 at 1:06 AM ^

I've lived in Central Ohio most of my life, and I don't know anyone who refers to The Ohio State University as "Ohio."  People here refer to The Ohio State University as Ohio State or OSU. 

Wolverine Devotee

September 28th, 2014 at 1:07 AM ^

The second the new coach (Harbaugh please) calls them by whatever name, I'll start calling them that.