Former Nihon University football head coach Masato Uchida's alleged order on a player to "crush" an opposing team's quarterback in a May 6 game between Japan's traditional rivals for supremacy in American football has dominated sports and tabloid headlines for most of the second half of May.
In repeatedly shown videos, hulking Nichidai linebacker Taisuke Miyagawa can be seen knocking down Kosei Okuno from behind, after the Kwansei Gakuin University quarterback had already thrown the the football. Depending on the media, Miyagawa's tackle was, by turns, hansoku (illegal), akushitsu (vicious) and even satsujin (homicidal).
"I would compare what the player did, tackling a defenseless player who is looking away, to a boxer slugging his opponent from behind after the bell ending the round and he is walking back to his corner — an almost unforgivable offense," says Marty Kuehnert, a veteran TV broadcaster and president of the Sendai-based ISMAC sports consultancy. "The only mitigating factor for the Nichidai player is that he was basically ordered to do it, and I am sure he felt he had no choice. I suppose if this happened in the U.S., the coaches would be fired, and the league and/or the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) would levy large fines, and perhaps suspend the team from competition."