After Texas A&M beat LSU Saturday in a bonkers game that tied the FBS overtime record (seven) and set a new points record (146), there were a couple of on-field altercations.
How the bizarre LSU vs. Texas A&M postgame fight(s) unfolded
Here’s an overview of what we know about the teams’ various, connected postgame altercations.
The whole fracas appears to have started with Texas A&M receivers coach Dameyune Craig running across the field, waving at LSU’s Ed Orgeron.
Sports Illustrated obtained video that showed Craig — in the immediate aftermath of the record-setting game’s finish — charging toward Orgeron while waving his fist. A man in a red Texas A&M shirt, who’s since been identified as Jimbo Fisher’s nephew, Cole, appears to have been trying to restrain Craig as he got within a few feet of Orgeron, and afterward:
The context here: Craig used to work for LSU. In February 2017, Orgeron fired him. And again, a highly emotional game had just ended.
While Cole Fisher was trying to walk Craig away from a confrontation, LSU assistant Steve Kragtorphe approached them.
Fisher shoved Kragthorpe, a 53-year-old who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, in the chest. Kragthorpe had previously characterized it as a punch, but here’s what video shows:
LSU safety John Battle landed a hell of a shot to Fisher’s jaw area.
A big problem with Fisher shoving Kragthorpe in the chest: Kragthorpe uses a pacemaker:
“Out of nowhere, I got nailed,” Kragthorpe said in a phone interview while he drove back home from the game Sunday afternoon. “I didn’t go down, but I clutched over. I was like, ‘Damn, he got me right in my pacemaker.’ Then it started fluttering like he jostled it.”
Texas A&M says Kragthorpe retracted a statement, from on the field after the game, that he’d been punched in the chest. But LSU says Kragthorpe made no such retraction.
LSU director of player development Kevin Faulk saw Kragthorpe get shoved, then went after Fisher, the man he’d seen shoving him.
The viral image from the whole affair: LSU’s Faulk getting into it with Fisher.
Faulk’s side of it, via The Daily Advertiser:
”It’s unfortunate this situation happened,” Faulk said Sunday in a phone interview. “It got out of hand. But I was just behaving as my mom and dad raised me. This guy hit Coach Kragthorpe in the chest. I just stepped in. It just happened.”
Any punishments for these incidents will come from the schools involved.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at a press conference before the Alabama-Georgia conference title game that the conference wouldn’t impose discipline on the participants. Maybe that’s because neither team has another SEC game to play this year.
See More:
