USC vs. UCLA didn’t have much sizzle this year because USC is on probation and UCLA isn’t very good.
You don’t normally think of LA as having brawling fans, but this particular disagreement got way out of hand. A few fans are now looking at being behind bars for a long time.
LOS ANGELES TIMES has more details on the cause of the melee and the identity and condition of the victims:
Friends said a man identified as Vimal Patel, 24, was in the intensive-care unit at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Joshua Dirling, 27, was stabbed in the cheek and a knife tip was embedded in his cheekbone, but he is expected to recover, relatives said.
The two were part of a group of about 15 or 20 people who had been drinking and cooking-out since 6:30 in the morning. The group they ended up brawling with had also been there drinking since the morning, witnesses said.
Patel, a student at Cal State Fullerton, was tossing a football with a friend when the ball accidentally hit a black Mercedes-Benz belonging to someone in the other group, according to his friend Martin Keeley.
All because a football hit a Benz?
Alcohol is legal, but I would argue that it is more dangerous that some of the casual drugs that can put you in jail if you are caught with them.
I doubt anyone would have gotten stabbed if they hadn’t been drinking since 6:30am.
The point is that no tailgate disagreement is worth 25 to life.