Michigan's Chris Wormley apologizes for flattening fan after Iowa game
Be advised, college football field-stormers, rushing towards midfield to celebrate with your team after a big win can have consequences.
One Iowa fan found out the hard – and painful – way.
Moments after Iowa kicker Keith Duncan booted the ball through the uprights at Kinnick Stadium to give the Hawkeyes a stunning 14-13 win over No. 3 Michigan, fans fled from their seats and started covering the turf to celebrate the improbable win. That’s when Chris Wormley – in an attempt to get back to the locker room – inadvertently plowed through a fan in an effort to get off the field before the swarm.
https://twitter.com/HeavensHawkeye/status/798342840673857536
Ouch. That didn’t look fun.
Tuesday after practice, the 6-foot-6, 300-pound Wormley apologized for the accident in an interview with Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News.
My first thought was ‘Get off the field as fast as possible. You could see them coming off the bleachers pretty fast. So, I just took a beeline to the locker room and somebody was in the way. I didn’t do it intentionally. I feel bad for the guy. Hope he’s OK. I think I saw a report he’s a little sore, but he’s doing just fine. I hope he’s doing OK.
Even though Wormley apologized for the accident, he didn’t admit that he was necessarily the one to blame:
I’m sure it didn’t feel too good for him. Looking back at it, maybe he should have gotten out of the way, I don’t know. I was heading for the locker room after that loss. I wasn’t thinking too much about who’s in my way, who’s not in my way. I hope he’s OK.
While storming the field has certainly become a time-honored tradition when a team knocks off a top 10 power, be advised that there’s still some pretty big guys trying to find their way off the field and in a hurry.
You definitely don’t want to be the next victim of a 300-pounder whose running as fast as he can to find the locker room.