A college football player from Nihon University in Japan delivered one of the most dangerous cheap shots you will ever see in an exhibition game earlier this month, and a coach is being accused of ordering the hit.
An anonymous player from Nihon told The Asahi Shimbun on Thursday that the defensive player who delivered the hit was demanded to do so by his coach, Masato Uchida.
“I heard from the defensive player that he was told by the head coach to ‘break’ the opponent’s quarterback if he wanted to play in the game,” the player said.
Here’s a video of the play:
A Japanese college coach is under investigation for allegedly ordering his player to deliver this cheap shot on an opposing QB https://t.co/QBdqSuQio5
— Steve DelVecchio (@SteveDelSports) May 18, 2018
The quarterback suffered knee and lower back injuries and was forced to leave the game. His school, Kwansei Gakuin University, filed a formal complaint against Uchida, but the coach responded that the late hit was a result of a miscommunication. He said he was simply trying to tell the defender to play tough, but another player from Nihon said he also heard “the head coach gave the instructions.”
“I want the university to tell the truth that there were instructions (from the head coach),” the student said. “We are not chess pieces of the coaches.”
Nihon has informed Kwansei Gakuin that an internal investigation is ongoing and a report will be issued on May 24. One Nihon player threatened to quit the team if the report does not include the truth. If you remember, we saw a similar situation a couple years back when a high school coach was accused of ordering his players to attack an official.
H/T Reddit CFB
