14 Grambling football players have been suspended for their involvement in a postgame brawl after the G-Men fell to Arkansas-Pine Bluff 35-32 on Saturday. Moments after the final whistle, both benches cleared and several fights broke out across the field. Tigers coach Mickey Joseph says it was unacceptable.
“I have to do a better job of getting my kids to channel their emotions after an emotional loss. It happened. We’re embarrassed about it. I’m embarrassed about it. We’re sorry, for the second time; it won’t happen again,” Joseph said.
The initial cause of the fight is unknown, but it is the second straight season in which a massive fight broke out at a Grambling home game. The same happened after halftime of a win over Bethune-Cookman last year. Joseph says it cannot happen again.
“It’s an unfortunate incident. We’re sorry it happened. It wasn’t the right thing; we didn’t want it to end like that. We wanted our seniors to go out with a win, and they didn’t,” Joseph noted.
After last year’s fight 18 Grambling players were suspended by the SWAC, and the school was fined $40,000. No punishments have been handed down by the conference yet.
Joseph says his players need to learn to control their emotions regardless of what happens on the field. He says that behavior is not what he is teaching in his program.
“We had a long talk with the kids about how we need to handle things when they feel like somebody’s disrespecting them. We’ve got to learn to walk away and take the high road,” Joseph explained.
The SWAC office announced that both Grambling and Arkansas Pine-Bluff would be fined $25,000 per school for Saturday night’s melee. In Addition to the 18 suspensions handed down to Grambling, nine Arkansas-Pine Bluff football players were also suspended.
