A protester found out what it felt like to be hit by NFL linebacker Bobby Wagner on Monday night as the Los Angeles Rams hosted the San Francisco 49ers.
At the end of the first half, a man ran onto the field at Levi’s Stadium carrying a pink flare, which stopped play briefly.
While he initially evaded security, he made the mistake of running toward the Rams’ defensive bench. Wagner and teammate Takkarist McKinley saw him coming and, as McKinley tried to grab hold of the protester, Wagner took him down with a brutal tackle.
Wagner said after the game he was just trying to help security.
“That’s not making a play. That’s just keeping it safe. You don’t know what that fan got or what they’re doing. You see it all the time, and we don’t know what they’re carrying in their pockets. It’s whatever that little smoke stuff is, but that s— could be dangerous,” Wagner said, via ESPN.
“One of the guys on the other side, it looked like he got hurt, and security looked like he was struggling, so I was frustrated, so I took it out on him.”
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It’s unclear whether the NFL will lay down any sort of punishment for him hitting the fan.
The fan reportedly pulled off the stunt to spread awareness about ‘Right to Rescue’, which according to CNN is an organization that aims to “help the whistleblowers facing prison time for exposing factory farm abuses and rescuing suffering animals.”
