ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It appears the rivalry rhetoric out of East Lansing has finally come to a head.
Two eyewitnesses described to WolverinesWire the melee in the Michigan Stadium tunnel after Michigan football beat Michigan State, 29-7. Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh should have been all smiles, considering his team beat its in-state rival. Instead, the tenor of the postgame was of a gut-punching loss.
Harbaugh described the scene as he knew it after the game.
“Yeah, two of our players were assaulted,” Harbaugh said. “You saw the one video — the 10-on-1. It was pretty, pretty bad. I’m going to let our athletic director Warde Manuel address it with the authorities. I’d like to talk about the football game the rest of the way. Maybe Warde will come up and talk after and give more detail to it. But it was pretty open and shut.
“One of our players has a nasal injury. Could be a broken nose. Just very unfortunate.”
Manuel joined Harbaugh to discuss the incident and said the Big Ten commissioner, Kevin Warren, as well as Ann Arbor police are involved in investigating the matter.
“What happened after the game was completely unacceptable,” Manuel said. “I’ve talked to the commissioner; he is looking into it. We have the police also looking into it because they’ve seen the video. And so they’re addressing it. We’ll leave it in their hands. But this is not how we should interact after a game. This is not the way another team should grab a player and do what they did. It’s completely and utterly unacceptable. We will let the Big Ten and law enforcement handle it, but this is not what a rivalry should be about. This is not how it should be remembered. We won on the field, this man and his team and his players went out there and won and for that to happen is unacceptable.
“That’s all I’m gonna say. I’ll leave it to Kevin and the law enforcement to handle from here on out.”
The video of the incident was disturbing. And when Harbaugh got back to the locker room, in a moment that should have been spent celebrating the win with the Paul Bunyan Trophy, instead, there was a morose feeling.
“We were addressing (the assault in the tunnel),” Harbaugh said. “Just like anybody, want to protect your players and 10-on-1, whatever it was, it was bad. I think Warde addressed it, and move on.
“It needs to be investigated and brought to a conclusion. Our athletic director will make sure that takes place.”
More details will follow as they become available.
[listicle id=64663]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbzardvge799bm2 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]