BTN videographer Ethan Bacon describes football in the groin pain

One of the stranger moments in Saturday’s college football action came from a pass from Rutgers Scarlet Knights’ quarterback Gavin Wimsatt against the Wisconsin Badgers Saturday. That pass sailed out of bounds and hit a photographer/videographer in a, uh, sensitive area:

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1710742545297506401

We did in fact later get that update. And it came from the videographer himself, Ethan Bacon, who was working this game for The Big Ten Network. He tweeted that at Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz, complete with the video clip from his camera:

@BarstoolBigCat

That's me. This is my story. https://t.co/3gtMc4ZSyU pic.twitter.com/ZDSSx9YFhZ

— Ethan Bacon (@ehbaconyt) October 7, 2023

Rutgers beat reporter Brian Fonseca of the Newark-based The Star-Ledger also spoke to Bacon afterwards:

Caught up briefly with Ethan Bacon, the Big Ten Network videographer who took the hit in this video.

"Hurt for about 40 minutes, and now it’s all good and it’s a funny story to tell and a great shot to have." https://t.co/1CTqEezvBB pic.twitter.com/jLX6VhDBaG

— Brian Fonseca (@briannnnf) October 7, 2023

The “Hurt for about 40 minutes, and now it’s all good and it’s a funny story to tell and a great shot to have” is certainly a good line. And this does add to quite a long history of “football in the groin” (or “other object in the groin“) moments. And this one was certainly notable for including Bacon’s own comments, and his own footage of getting hit by this football.

Being on the sidelines of a game can be quite hazardous, for both media figures and for athletes who encounter them. And media members have taken plenty of other injuries around games. This is just the latest case of how sports can have physical impacts even on those documenting them.

[Ethan Bacon on Twitter; image from Brian Fonseca on Twitter]