Saturday’s D-II college football game between Delta State and Chowan came to an early end after a nasty brawl broke out on the sideline. Video from the incident is ugly.
It all went down with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter, with the home-standing Hawks down 42-18 to the visiting Statesmen. Delta State handed the ball off to running back Tamaj Hoffman.
And then it escalated from there.
Hoffman went 19 yards and was emphatically shoved out of bounds. That led players from both teams to start chirping, which quickly turned to some pushing and shoving, which quickly turned violent. Players were thrown to the ground. Punches were exchanged.
Much of the broadcast quality was hindered by rain, which made for a grainy feed. Amid the dust up, one Chowan player can be seen repeatedly swinging his helmet atop a Delta State player on the right side.
To make it even crazier, the video appears to show fans from the home side getting in on the action. One fan even went so far as to fling a helmet right into the middle of the fight.
A fan-filmed video from down on the sideline looked even worse. Chowan players had a Delta State player up against the fence and took multiple cheap shots while not allowing him to escape.
Things eventually calmed down and both sides were separated. However, at that point, the game was already over in terms of the score so there was no need to line both teams back up on the field.
Officials decided to end the game early. It did not continue.
As of now, there is no indication as to what might come from the brawl. The Gulf South Conference will review the footage and decide how to proceed from there. Chowan may also choose to issue discipline to the players involved in the fight on its own. The same can be said for Delta State, though the Statesmen were on the defensive side of the incident.