May 23 (NHK) - A college American football player who injured an opposing team's quarterback during a game in Tokyo says he was ordered by his coaches to make a controversial late tackle.
On May 6th, the Nihon University defender barreled at the Kwansei Gakuin University quarterback from behind a few seconds after he passed the ball. The quarterback suffered a knee injury that was expected to take 3 weeks to heal.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the player detailed his coaches' instructions. He said that on the day of the game, he asked the head coach to put him in, as he was ready to seriously hurt the quarterback. He added that he did so on instructions he'd gotten from another coach the day before.
The player said the head coach told him his words would be meaningless if he didn't follow through on them. He added that later, when the players were lined up before the game, the coach reminded him that failure was unacceptable.
The player said his mind was blank immediately after the game, and that he did not even realize that the quarterback had been replaced due to his injury. The player said he had never been in such a state.
The quarterback filed a complaint with police on Monday. His father told reporters that he wants to know why the defender did such a dangerous thing.
Nihon University plans to submit the results of its in-house investigation to Kwansei Gakuin by Thursday.
Source: ANNnewsCH
