Illinois Brown Suspended For Knee To Groin

Illinois linebacker Jonathan Brown has been suspended one game for a flagrant hit on a Northwestern player.

And "flagrant" is, certainly, one way to call it...

Brown kneed Wildcats offensive lineman Patrick Ward in the groin...
Right up the middle...
((HT: Big Ten Conference/ESPN/youtube))


"We are extremely disappointed by what happened on Saturday and Jonathan knows that," Illinois coach Ron Zook said in a statement. "We don't condone that type of behavior in our program. I've talked to Jonathan and he understands that. He is a good person, a spiritual person, and no one feels worse about it than him. But he got caught up in the moment, made a serious mistake and must deal with the consequences."

"I apologize to my family, my teammates and the Illinois fans for letting them down," Brown said in a statement just as prepared as Zook's. "I also would like to apologize to the Northwestern team for my actions. What I did was out of character and won't happen again."

And if you look at the video, Brown makes a point to look and see if an official is looking before he pops the Northwestern guy...

And he still got the penalty called on him...