JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A fight broke out in the third quarter of Saturday night’s Jacksonville Jaguars preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The brawl was recorded by at least one nearby fan and shared on social media. One version of the video now has close to 3 million views.
**WARNING: The video below contains violent imagery and explicit language that may be disturbing to some viewers**
So many arrests and ticket suspensions about to be handed out. It’s preseason folks. If you get that upset out in public at a @Jaguars game, perhaps you deserve what’s coming. And SAFE should be ashamed at the response time. pic.twitter.com/8t0kYqodXc
— John M. Phillips (@JohnPhillips) August 21, 2022
The man who claimed to be the one who threw the first punch in the fight didn’t want to be interviewed on camera by News4JAX but spoke out on social media.
In a lengthy Facebook post, the man said he and his family were being harassed all game and a racial slur about his heritage is what set him off.
In the post, he wrote: “It was the first time in my entire life that I struck somebody first…I wish I could have even thicker skin than I already have. The environment we live in, the amount of hate that is out there is becoming reminiscent of the 50s and 60s.”
He said the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office took other people involved out of the stadium and checked on him to make sure he was alright and added that JSO handled the situation with professionalism.
A lot of people who saw the video online commented that it took S.A.F.E Management, the company that handles security at the stadium, a long time to respond.
News4JAX has reached out to S.A.F.E. Management asking them for comment as well as JSO to ask about any arrests, but have not heard back.