Ugly Brawl Mars Youth Football Game
Authorities are trying to identify dozens of people from a videotape that shows a vicious brawl following a youth football game in which one man was repeatedly kicked in the head, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.
The tape showed young children, teenagers and adults taking part in a wild free-for-all after a San Gabriel Valley Junior All-American Football Conference game in this Los Angeles suburb on Saturday. About 25 people were involved in the fight.
No one was arrested, but Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Irma Becerra said Wednesday night that investigators were reviewing the videotape, which was recorded by a bystander.
The tape was played Wednesday night on Los Angeles television stations KCAL and KCBS.
The fight occurred immediately after a game between teams from Pico Rivera and nearby Downey.
Downey parent Desi Tubbs was beaten so badly he was rushed to the hospital.
"They had us way outnumbered," Tubbs told KCBS-TV. "They separated anybody who wanted to get in there to stop the fight and beat them up. It was about five or six guys."
The president of one of the teams, Dick Engles, said he saw a 9-year-old girl hit. Engels himself was shown on the video being knocked down, and he appeared on TV Wednesday with a deep cut over the bridge of his nose.
The parents of the visiting Downey Razorbacks said, despite park prohibitions, Pico Rivera parents were drinking alcohol. Pico Rivera parents aren't speaking.
"The guy who hit me, his eyes were so red, he had to be drinking for hours and hours," Engles said.
"I've never seen anything in 12 years of coaching like it," said Downey coach Jeff Wheeler.
But the fact is it's been happening with disturbing regularity across the country, even in the littlest leagues: adults behaving badly.
"I think it's very bad kids should have to see something like that," Darryl Laurell, who shot the videotape, told CBS. "If parents can't behave, how do they expect kids to?"