The “Fun City Bowl” at MCU Park on Coney Island was supposed to be a “fun” charity football game between the NYPD and the FDNY. And by all accounts it was, until the near the very end.
That’s when a police officer laid a hit on a firefighter and all hell broke loose.
“They hit our quarterback out of bounds, and that’s how things started,” FDNY coach Steve Orr said. “There were a lot of hotheads there.”
The massive free-for-all lasted for several minutes before finally cooling off, but then another skirmish broke out in the middle of the field before order was finally restored, but not without at least one player suffering an injury. One firefighter is seen in the video with blood dripping from his left ear and covering his face.
Officials decided at that point to just let the clock expire and end the game.
FOOTBALL FIGHT: game between city's finest and bravest ends with fists. (📹: @AZPNYC) story: @NBCNewYork #11p pic.twitter.com/927PfTaN9k
— Ray Villeda (@RayVilleda) May 24, 2016
The good news is that once tempers cooled everyone appeared to be fine.
“At the end, they were all talking, it was like water under the bridge,” photographer Angel Zayas told NBC New York.
Oh yeah, the NYPD won the game 29-13.
Some of you may recall that this isn’t the first time the NYPD and FDNY got into a bit of fisticuffs during a charity sporting event. Remember the bench-clearing brawl during a 2014 hockey game?
Perhaps next year the two sides should try playing against one another in a golf tournament or some other sport with less hitting.