After a game-winning field goal by Tennessee Saturday to beat Alabama 52-49, Tennessee fans stormed the field in Neyland Stadium.
During all the chaos and celebration, as the Alabama players and coaches were trying to make their way back to the locker room, Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton was caught on video in not one of his best moments, appearing to strike a female fan in the head.
Wednesday morning, a statement was sent out from Nick Saban about the situation saying he was "working to gather more information."
“We are aware of the situation with Jermaine Burton as he was exiting the field Saturday,” Saban said Wednesday morning. “We are currently working to gather more information.”
Later in the day at his Wednesday press conference, Saban gave an update on the situation.
"We handle discipline issues internally, and that's the way we'll handle this," Saban said. "But as I said today when I was asked about the whole [how] the league is trying to control people rushing the field. It's a difficult circumstance for the league. It's a difficult circumstance for the people who are on the field. But we got to go through those difficult circumstances and still respect other people. And I think that's on us to do that, and that's certainly a lesson for all of us to learn relative to this."
In a defeat against Texas A&M last year, Alabama was put in a similar situation as Aggie fans also rushed the field after upsetting the Crimson Tide. Coach Saban suffered multiple bruises from fans running into him as he was trying to exit the field.
Tennessee will be fined $100,000 as a result of the fans storming the field. This steep fine is in place to deter fans from rushing the field to help protect players, coaches and fans, and also to avoid situations like this.
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