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Off-Duty Deputy Tackles Shirtless Man At Local High School Football Game

COLFAX (CBS13) - It was the hardest hit in Friday night's high school football game between Colfax and Placer high schools - and it wasn't from one of the players.

Troy Minton-Sander loves to watch his son play football for Colfax, and he also happens to work as a lieutenant for the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

This was no halftime show. In the middle of the game, a half-naked man ran on the field and started dumping water.

It was all caught on video.

"It was really crazy," one student said Tuesday.

Then out of nowhere, Minton-Sander charged and took Patrick Hurley out.

"I was pretty scared," a student said.

Minton-Sander is a 17-year veteran at the sheriff's department. He's also the father of one of Colfax's star players and was snapping photos for the team when Hurley made his move.

"It was cold, he had no shirt on, appeared to have some sort of strap around his waist and from my vantage point it looked like a knife and sheath by his groin," Minton-Sander said.

He thought Hurley was on drugs. Though he was off-duty, Minton-Sander decided to take action.

"I made a plan if he was to turn his back to me at any moment, I would tackle him," he said.

And that's just what he did, making a perfect form tackle just like they teach in practice. But it didn't end there. The 6-foot-2, physically fit Murphy struggled and it took five men to get him under control.

The sheriff's department said Hurley wasn't on drugs but was drunk. Still, Minton-Sander said he wasn't going to take any chances.

"I did what any parent would do to protect the kids," he said.

Minton-Sander did play football at Placer High as well, though he said he learned to tackle like that from police training.

His son recently accepted a scholarship to play football at Sac State.

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