On Saturday, we shared the news of Tennessee Volunteers defensive lineman Danny O’Brien being taken off the field on a stretcher during the team’s game at Texas A&M. It was a very scary scene in College Station that had the entire Vols team on the field, and brought tears down the faces of many in attendance.
Texas A&M even tweeted on Saturday that their thoughts were with O’Brien:
Our thoughts are with Danny O’Brien of @Vol_Football #12thMan #TENNvsTAMU
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) October 8, 2016
Well, O’Brien — a redshirt senior — thankfully ended up being okay. That’s the good news and certainly the most important news with how scary that looked.
The bad news: O’Brien has been dismissed from the team due to an undisclosed violation of team rules.
Here’s more from KnoxNews.Com:
Tennessee redshirt senior defensive lineman Danny O’Brien has been dismissed from the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules, according to a release from the Tennessee athletics department on Monday night. The release by the university said the dismissal was unrelated to O’Brien’s injury “however, should he require any additional care it will be provided by the University of Tennessee.”
KnoxNews.Com adds that O’Brien was suspended last season due to an undisclosed violation of team rules.
Before the news of O’Brien’s dismissal, Vols head coach Butch Jones talked about how much of a relief it was that O’Brien wasn’t seriously injured on Saturday:
“Relief,” Jones said. “Those are one of those moments in time when you’re on the field you never want to be a part of. Everything is racing through your mind, but the big thing you want to do is you want to be there for him and you want to be there for his family. I thought our training staff took all the precautionary elements that needed to be done. Texas A&M officials handled it exceptionally well.”
Less than an hour ago, O’Brien tweeted that he takes “full responsibility” for being dismissed and that it was an “honor to help bring this [Tennessee] program back”:
I take full responsibility. I’m grateful for my teammates, coaches, and Vol nation. It has been and honor to help bring this program back. — Danny O’Brien (@dandiesel13) October 11, 2016
