Careful: That Punter Will Go For The Nuts

It has been a felonious year for backup punters. There was, of course, the famous leg-stabbing punter of Northern Colorado, and now we have Kyle Keown, punter for Vanderbilt who got himself in all kinds of trouble last week.

During the early-morning hours of Dec. 1, Keown began striking his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Treichel, in the Elliston Place apartment occupied by him and Commodores backup quarterback Richard Kovalcheck. When Kovalcheck intervened, Keown began hitting him. After the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Kovalcheck struck Keown in self-defense, the 6-foot, 195-pound Keown "then grabbed the victim by the groin, and began squeezing and pulling very intensely." Keown eventually released Kovalcheck, and the two went to separate bedrooms in the apartment. Keown then entered Kovalcheck's bedroom through a balcony entrance "holding a large knife above his head. The victim stated that the defendant told him that he was going to kill him." ... Kovalcheck had some dried blood in his nose after being struck by Keown, and "also appeared to be in pain from his groin injury."

Yes, we can understand where Kovalcheck was coming from there. We find it disturbing that punters are becoming so violent. If you can't count on punters to be docile, placid leg stretchers, jeez, it's almost like you'd have to just accept that all football players are malevolent cretins or something.

Arrested Vandy Player Allegedly Assaulted Teammate [The Tennessean] It's Like Tonya Harding, But Less Manly [Deadspin]