Northern Colorado assistant and son of Ed McCaffrey receives reprimand after throwing clipboard into stands
Northern Colorado assistant Max McCaffrey has been reprimanded by the school for throwing part of his clipboard into the stands during a game at Montana State.
The FCS school said in a statement on Tuesday that it had found that McCaffrey, the son of Northern Colorado coach and former NFL wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, was not intending to be malicious when he threw the clipboard into the stands. UNC said that McCaffrey was instead throwing part of the clipboard to a fan and "inadvertently" hit another fan
“While Coach Max McCaffrey’s tossing of a souvenir into the stands showed poor judgment, it was clear there was no intent to harm nor was the action fueled by anger. Max is embarrassed by the incident and is working privately to apologize to the fan hit by the errant toss," Northern Colorado athletic director Darren Dunn said in a school statement. “After visiting with Max and the entire football staff, I am confident we will have no further engagement with fans of our opponents.”
Max McCaffrey is the team's offensive coordinator. He's the brother of Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and Michigan transfer Dylan McCaffrey, who is Northern Colorado's quarterback.
Was McCaffrey being heckled?
According to a high school student at the game, McCaffrey broke his clipboard after Dylan McCaffrey had thrown an interception. The student told the Denver Post that he had been yelling at McCaffrey about the size of his pants and then the coach turned around and chucked part of the clipboard into the stands.
“I said, ‘Hey Coach, maybe you should focus on how small your pants are, rather than breaking a clipboard,” the senior told the Tribune in a text message.
If he had known the comment was going to cause escalation, [Max] Demarais said he wouldn’t have said it.
“I was very surprised he tried throwing it at me,” Demarais said. “I was one of the only people standing in my section when I said it. I’m guessing he tried throwing it at me. Everyone around me freaked out, and I was just dumbfounded.”
Per the Post, the fan who was struck received brief medical attention.
Northern Colorado was blown out by Montana State 40-7 on Saturday. The loss dropped the Bears to 2-3 on the season after Northern Colorado opened the year with a 35-7 loss at Colorado.