Blood Flows Red In The Rose Bowl Parking Lot

A melee in the Rose Bowl parking lot before yesterday's USC/UCLA game left two men hospitalized with stab wounds. Like most of the world's blood-soaked battles, it began when a football from a tailgate "accidentally hit a black Mercedes-Benz."

According to the Los Angeles Times, three suspects were arrested, one on attempted-murder charges ...

The fight, which involved 50 to 75 people, broke out about 4:30 p.m. in Parking Lot 1 on the north side of the Rose Bowl, officials said. ... [The errant football] prompted three men to come over and start a confrontation that ended in Patel being stabbed, his friends said. Keeley said he jumped in to defend his friend.

"I grabbed the first guy I could and wrestled him to the ground," he said, the shirt he was wearing still torn and stained with blood hours later as he waited for news of his friend at the hospital.

"It was just drunken guys looking to start a fight," said Renee Breceda, who is Matthew Dirling's girlfriend.