Rutgers AD apologizes for beer incident at tailgate party
Rutgers athletic director Patrick Hobbs apologized after video surfaced of him drinking a beer at a school-sponsored tailgate party.
The video shows Hobbs being handed a beer at the tailgate party and he says, "No, I can't drink that right now."
The crowd then starts yelling for Hobbs to drink the beer, and he says. "I am of age. If they card me, I'm OK. All right, go RU."
Before the start of the football season, the school announced it would sponsor a student tailgate at football home games, calling the location "The Alley." "The Alley" is lot about 400 yards from High Point Solutions Stadium.
After the incident, Rutgers said it was shutting down the event. "Regrettably, due to safety concerns, The Alley is no longer available for student tailgating." the school said on Twitter.
"My first concern is always for the safety and well-being of our students,'' Hobbs told NJ.com. "Anyone who was at the [student tailgate] Saturday knows that I was acting to ensure that. I regret that any action on my part can be interpreted as promoting the use of alcohol. That was certainly not my intention.''
The school said that the first tailgate on Sept. 10 drew 500 to 800 students, but as many as 3,000 students showed up to last Saturday's tailgate .
– Scooby Axson
