Apparently, 60 minutes of football wasn’t enough for Louisville and North Carolina on Saturday night, as “the two ACC rivals decided to throw in a little extracurricular activity”, according to Yahoo Sports.
Louisville escaped with a 16-14 victory over Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels, but the final score quickly became an afterthought when both sidelines emptied onto the field.
The chaotic scene looked more like a handful of heavyweight boxing matches than the conclusion of a college football game, per Yahoo Sports.
The trouble began after North Carolina quarterback Travis Burgess threw a costly interception with just over a minute remaining, effectively ending the Tar Heels’ hopes of stealing a victory.
Louisville needed only to kneel down and run out the clock, but the Cardinals’ final kneel-down instead became the opening bell for an all-out fight.
Players began exchanging words before tempers boiled over, sending teammates pouring off both sidelines as pushing and shoving escalated into a sprawling melee.
Officials desperately blew their whistles and tossed penalty flags during the incident, which was “captured on video by gmannVOLS”, according to social media posts.
At one point, there were several skirmishes going on all over the field, including in the end zone, as reported by Yahoo Sports.
For Belichick, the embarrassing spectacle added another ugly chapter to an already frustrating night in Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina fell to 5-5 after letting a winnable game slip through its fingers, and now the Tar Heels must prepare for Virginia with questions surrounding both their execution and discipline.
The ACC could also have something to say about the confrontation if the conference decides additional punishment and suspensions are warranted, per Yahoo Sports.