Late Hit Scandal Rocks The World Of Japanese College Football

Socrates Johnson7 years ago

For all of you crunching the numbers at home, there are about 100 days to go until the start of the American college football season. I say “American college football,” because apparently other countries have college football as well (I legitimately did not know that until today). And while the product isn’t even a quarter as good as what we have in America (I can only assume, I’ve obviously never seen any games), football is football. Which brings us to the wild, wild world of Japanese college football, where the top story revolves around a late hit incident that is sort of reminiscent of the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal from a few years back.

From Washington Post:

During a May 6 game, Nihon University defensive lineman Taisuke Miyagawa launched himself into the back of Kwansei Gakuin University quarterback Kosei Okuno well after he had thrown a pass, resulting in knee and spinal-ligament injuries that will sideline the quarterback for three weeks, Agence France-Presse reported.

As you can see, it was the cheapest of shots. According to Kyodo News, Okuno has filed an official complaint with police in Osaka Prefecture.

While this ridiculously egregious late hit went down a couple weeks ago, the player responsible decided to wait until today, for some reason, to have a press conference to discuss what went down behind the scenes. And succinctly put, what went down was…

Miyagawa apologized during a news conference Tuesday that was televised live across Japan, bowing to a 90-degree angle and holding it for several seconds, a sign of deep remorse, according to the Associated Press. He added that he made the tackle to curry favor with Coach Masato Uchida and assistant Tsutomu Inoue, who had kept him out of practice because he did not show “drive and fighting morale.”

“After the practice [on May 5], Coach Inoue said to me, ‘I asked head coach what you would need to do to play in the game, he said if you squash the quarterback on the first play, we would let you play. So go tell him, ‘I’ll squash the quarterback, so use me,’” Miyagawa said, per the Japan Times.

“I thought it was an implication that I needed to do it with a strong mind-set, as if I would smash [the quarterback], but I really did need to do it,” Miyagawa added. “So I felt like I had no choice and was in anguish.”

Miyagawa was ejected from the game after committing two more personal fouls, retreating in tears to a tent near the field where he said Inoue berated him, calling the player soft. On Tuesday, Miyagawa said he has quit the sport.

“I have no intention of continuing to play American football in the future,” Miyagawa said. “I don’t even know what I should do from now on.”

Uchida resigned in the wake of the incident on Saturday.

I don’t know if the coach showed up to this press conference or not, but I can only imagine him as a Cobra Kai-type sensei, ordering players to “sweep the leg” during QB sweeps. Sucks for the kid, though. One second, he thinks he’s about to have his Rudy moment, and the next, he’s deep in the shit, both legally and career-wise.

Definitely not a feel-good story by any stretch. And they wonder why we rarely cover college football in other countries..

[via Washington Post]

Image via YouTube Screenshot