Michigan State has faced a great deal of criticism for the tunnel fight that took place at Michigan Stadium over a week ago, and legendary basketball coach Tom Izzo is not pleased with the way the media has covered the incident.
After leading the Spartans to a win over Northern Arizona in their season opener on Monday night, Izzo spent some time talking about the ugly tunnel brawl that led to eight Michigan State football players being suspended. The 76-year-old coach praised head football coach Mel Tucker for taking swift action.
“I didn’t like the way it went. I didn’t like the way some of you wrote it,” Izzo told reporters. “But I understand, and I think Mel did what he was supposed to do. He reprimanded the guys that didn’t do their job right, but there’s other people that should be reprimanded for not doing their job right.
“The decisions he made on the players is awesome. There’s not an excuse in the world (to justify) why players would act like that. I have some problems with some other things … I get tired of Michigan State always looking like the bad guy. There’s been other bad guys.”
You can hear more of Izzo’s comments below:
Here's what Tom Izzo had to say tonight about the incident in the tunnel at UM. He was asked by a reporter about the MSU victory over Illinois. Rather than try to condense/paraphrase what he said into a tweet, I'll let his words speak for themselves: pic.twitter.com/V9mXkP4jPG
— David Harns (@DavidHarns) November 8, 2022
Izzo did not mention names and danced around the topic a bit. It seemed like he may have been criticizing Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for not holding his own players accountable. He also may have been implying that Wolverines players played an equal role in the brawl and faced no consequences.
Four Michigan State players were suspended initially before the total went up to eight. The disciplinary action came after video footage showed two Michigan players being beat up in the tunnel.
