What’s the Beef Between Football and Hockey Players in Michigan?

Admittedly, we’ve been sitting on these double pieces of news for awhile. But unless you follow either college hockey, Michigan/Michigan State football or the police blotter very closely, it’s likely you haven’t delved into this too far.

First, let us dispense with the sufficient background information.

On the early Sunday morning of Oct. 12 University of Michigan football player Mike Milano allegedly attacked Michigan hockey defenseman Steve Kampfer. As a result of the attack, Kampfer suffered neck and head injuries that will cause him, in all likelihood, to miss the rest of the season. It seems it could have been much worse.

The incident happened in the early morning hours of a Sunday morning when who knows what was going on. Either way, it’s awful.

Then, a week later, something very similar happened at Michigan State. A fight of some sort landed MSU hockey player A.J. Sturges in the hospital with a broken jaw and possibly some other injuries and, while it’s clear members of the football team were also involved in this melee, details are still pretty fuzzy even though accusations have been made.

So that’s it. Two weeks, two fights, both involving the hockey and football programs at Michigan state schools and two hockey players in the hospital.

Bizarre is all we can say. It made us think, is there some kind of testosterone-laced rivalry between football and hockey teams? No idea. For his part, Michigan State hockey coach Rick Comley says no:

“There’s not a problem between the football program and the hockey program. There was an incident involving a party, multiple students, not just athletes. It’s unfortunate but I think it’ll be sorted out, and the police are dealing with it and everybody’s cooperating.”

What we do know is this: When you mix athletes that play physical sports like football and hockey together with parties and (possibly) alcohol, these things can happen.

But what the hell, man? Nobody should end up in the hospital over senseless fighting with fellow student athletes. It just doesn’t make sense.

Come on, boys.