Report: Police justify pepper spray use during Ohio State-Michigan brawl after review

Following a dust-up at the end of the annual Michigan–Ohio State game this fall, police intervened to break up a potential brawl at midfield by using pepper spray and displaying a Taser.

On Thursday, The Athletic revealed more from the incident following a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The reporting revealed that three department officials, including Ohio State’s chief of police, agreed that the use of pepper spray was “reasonable.”

The documents turned over to The Athletic also indicated that most actions by the sheriff’s office that day were deemed appropriate by the Internal Affairs Bureau. That included one instance of an officer threatening a player with the use of a Taser after placing it in the small of his back.

Police had initially released a statement defending their actions that day.

“Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation,” the statement read. “During the scuffle, multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray. OSUPD is the lead agency for games & will continue to investigate.”

Those investigations apparently found no fault with Ohio State police department actions.

The brawl initially started after Michigan players attempted to plant a flag near midfield, at the Ohio State logo. Buckeyes players quickly ran over to prevent that, getting into it with the Wolverines.

Once things settled down and the field started to clear, Michigan running back Kalel Mullings reacted to what just unfolded. He said the players should’ve left it on the field rather than let it bleed over into postgame and added the two teams had four quarters to be physical, and it didn’t need to continue afterward.

“For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game,” Mullings told FOX’s Jenny Taft. “It’s just bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, some people, they’ve got to learn how to lose. You can’t be fighting and stuff just because you lost the game.

“All that fighting, we had 60 minutes, we had four quarters to do all that fighting. Now, people want to talk and fight. That’s wrong. It’s just bad for the game. Classless, in my opinion. People got to be better.”