Yea no doubt, I get the feeling that these bar owners are not the Vol fans that they claim to be. they keep coming out with stuff, like, "I had to take a few stools away from players," and "I saw 9 or 10 players stomping on the cop" turns into, "I saw a kicking motion, and when I got close enough, realized that it was the off-duty cop getting kicked". Seems like if you are close enough to see a kicking motion in the middle of a large crowd from one person, you could also see who that person was.
I've read numerous accounts and talked to people who allegedly were there or know somebody who was there, and I think a lot is going unsaid, or mixed up.
It's like ESPN qouting that Paige person who was in the bar, She said, " there's no way that other guy started it because the player was so big." Why does that determine what she witnessed?
I would say that the real situation is somewhere in the middle of all of the stories.
Something like, this guy and his friends were good ol' boys who were partying and shooting pool, and this guy was the "Billy Badarse" of the group. Both groups probably exchanged words and dude decided that he was gonna start the exchange by doing the shoulder bump into Hughes as he walked by. Well, Hughes probably said something along the lines of, "Watch where you are going (female dog) and dude through a punch. Then the Hughes destroyed him, his friends came forward and the football team did too and a "brawl" insued.
When the bouncers were able to push the fight out the front door, the off-duty cop jumped in to break it up and was probably mistaken for one of the good ol' boys, maybe grabbing Hughes or somebody and another player (nelson) punched him to get him off of the player, not knowing he was trying to end the confrontation. Then he got stomped just like any other person who ended up on the ground.
When there is a lot of people fighting at once, shat gets crazy quick. Anybody you dont know gets considered as an enemy and especially if they are hanging onto one of your buddies.
Im not trying to justify the players, they should be at home, in bed, preparing for summer work-outs at 6am. but they werent. And I would say that nobody involved is completely innocent. I just hope this all works out, for our team's sake. We are already lacking players.
Sorry for the long post, just havent commented on this situation at all.