Thursday, December 31, 2020

Fights breaks out between Mississippi State, Tulsa players after final whistle of 2020 Armed Forces Bowl


By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved

FORT WORTH, TEXAS (December 31, 2020) The Mississippi State Bulldogs downed No. 24 Tulsa Golden Hurricane by the score of 28-26 at the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Thursday. However, the action after the game garnered more attention and more media coverage than the actual game.

After the final whistle, the fans at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium saw a massive brawl break pout between players, managers and team support staff of both teams. While it is not clear what led to the incident, a number of players and coaches could be seen involved in the ugly scene along the sidelines. Tensions had been high during the entire game with both teams taunting each other before kickoff. It was not apparent what started the incident, but punches began flying and at that point, things got out of hands. 

A video clip (courtesy of CBS Sports)of the incident is posted above. Numerous players were invoo;led in the  melee and those involved surely will be identified. Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach was interviewed, and questioned about the fight, after the game. He stated, 

"It's dumb. The root of it's dumb, no matter what the root of it is. The root of it's dumb and the continuation of it's dumb. I would have that solidly in the category of dumb. Now where the dumb started, I'm not entirely sure."

Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery stated he did not know what started the fight either, but did say his players were supporting each other. 

"The one thing I'll say is our program, our guys, we're a team that is going to stand up for each other and we're going to battle. We talked about faith, family, football and family is going to take care of family. We're a team that has battled all year long. We battled again today and from that standpoint our guys are going to continue to protect each other and go from there." 

Look for further details to emerge regatding this incident in the coming days. 


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