Taking matters into his own hands: Oregon running back explains why he tackled fan that ran onto field
One of the more eye-popping incidents in college football this week came when an Oregon running back tackled a wayward fan, who had run on the field during Oregon’s 17-7 win over Cal.
Late in the third quarter, a fan ran onto the field during a timeout and somehow got past a handful of security guards as he ran from one end zone to the other, and back. However, his time on the field was cut short by Oregon RB Cyrus Habibi-Likio, who who broke from the Ducks’ huddle around the 35 and sprinted about 20 yards to catch the fan, ESPN reported.
Habibi-Likio said it was one way to jump-start the team after the Ducks trailed at the time.
“We were down and he was kind of taking a while — prayers out to him, I hope he’s not hurt,” Habibi-Likio told reporters after Saturday’s game. “I had no intention of hurting him, we just need to get the game going. This is the Pac-12 North, and this is a Pac-12 game, we gotta get going or the result would have been different.”
His coach also offered an opinion.
“I’ve heard a lot of commentary about it; I really don’t have all the details about it so I don’t even know if it was a tackle,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said. “I’ll let you guys fill me in.
“(Tackling fans on the field) is definitely not a part of practice.”
Habibi-Likio felt a bit of remorse and offered an olive branch to the fan: “If he has Instagram or Twitter, you can follow me and message me and we can go get ice cream,” Habibi-Likio said.”
If you missed it, here is the on-field view of the streaker from the Duck game. Great tackle by @cyri3e pic.twitter.com/pWkjhuUZbL
— Ethan Wyss (@WyssEthan22) October 6, 2019