CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Louisville had just taken a knee to kill the final seconds of Saturday night's 16-14 win at North Carolina, but Tar Heels defensive tackle Xavier Lewis and Cardinals offensive lineman Johnnie Brown III kept jostling in a testy exchange.
Moments later, as time expired, more players stepped in and locked up. Tempers flared and jawing at one other escalated to shoving, players in pileups and a haze of flailing arms with possible
punches being in thrown, with the brawl fanning out to multiple skirmishes on the field before the teams were separated.
It's unclear whether the incident will lead to discipline being meted out from either team or possibly from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“It’s obviously unfortunate,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. “You try to get things broken up as fast as you can. It didn’t get broken up too fast. But you never want to see that happen. So I’d have to see what really started it. Hopefully we can correct that and not do that again.”
The clean-up work included North Carolina coach Bill Belichick getting involved to help separate the teams, with at least one tussle breaking off from the main mass of players and leading to a separate pileup of players in an end zone.
“You play the game between the whistles, that’s not what we’re here for,” Belichick said, adding later “We got out there and got everybody out as quickly as possible.”
In a video from WRAL TV of Raleigh, Belichick briefly stopped to shake hands with Louisville quarterback Lincoln Kienholz on the field, then stepped in to direct and pull multiple Tar Heels players away from the brief-but-intense chaos.
Afterward, Tar Heels linebacker Derek McDonald said the incident “just got out of hand."
“We should've won between the whistles,” McDonald said. “None of that needs to happen. Unnecessary.”
North Carolina receiver Jordan Shipp didn't sound certain as to what triggered the fracas. Moments earlier, he had been unable to haul in a fourth-down pass from backup Travis Burgess, with the ball bouncing to Louisville's Jabari Mack for a clinching interception with 58 seconds left.
Shipp said he was still processing that moment on the sideline when tempers flared.
“Like I said, I don't know what happened," Shipp said. “But if it was one of our guys, whatever initiated or anything like that, we just want to make sure that doesn’t happen again regardless of where emotions are.”
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