ON THE SIDELINES : Sideline Tackle Wins Suspension
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Pacific University officials have suspended from the football team a player who stepped off the sidelines and decked a Linfield player late in Saturday’s game between the two schools.
Bob Bonn, athletic director at the Forest Grove school, said Monday that starting linebacker Joe Schmelzer, a junior, will not return to the team this year.
Schmelzer was watching from the sidelines in the fourth quarter as Linfield defensive back Tony Chiu intercepted a Pacific pass at the Linfield 40-yard line and raced past the Boxers’ bench. Chiu was about 30 yards shy of a touchdown when Schmelzer stepped onto the field and flattened him with a shoulder to the chest.
Bonn said Schmelzer, a 20-year-old junior from Palo Alto, “feels terrible. He was in tears after the game, and he apologized to his own team,” Bonn said. “It’s a situation he regrets deeply.”
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