I've been covering sports for 20 years. I've seen bench-clearing brawls in baseball. I've seen hockey fights that emptied both benches. I've seen basketball games where punches were thrown and suspensions handed out like candy.
But I have never seen anything like what happened in the Cruzeiro-Atletico Mineiro derby last night in Brazil. Twenty-three red cards. Read that again. Twenty-three players sent off.
Fourteen players on the pitch got red cards. Then nine more from the benches. By the time it was over, there were more cards shown than goals scored this entire season by some teams.
This wasn't a soccer match - this was a riot with a ball in the middle. The kind of mass violence that stains the beautiful game and makes you wonder what we're even doing here.
According to reports, staff members who were supposed to be breaking up the fight were caught on camera kicking players on the ground. Let that sink in. The people charged with restoring order were actively participating in the chaos.
This is the Campeonato Mineiro, one of Brazil's state championships. These are professional athletes representing historic clubs with passionate fanbases. And what did those fans witness? A complete breakdown of discipline, sportsmanship, and basic human decency.
The referee deserves credit for not losing complete control - though one could argue that 23 red cards suggests control was already lost. But imagine being in that position. Players fighting everywhere. Benches emptying. Staff members joining in. At what point do you just abandon the match and call it a day?
The fallout from this is going to be severe, and it should be. Fines won't cut it. Suspensions need to be lengthy and meaningful. And the federation needs to take a hard look at what allowed this situation to escalate to this point.
Because here's the thing: derbies are supposed to be intense. Emotions run high. I get it. But there's a line between passion and violence, between rivalry and assault. That line was obliterated in Brazil last night.
The game I love, the game millions around the world love, deserves better than this. The Brazilian football authorities have a lot of questions to answer.
