ATHENS ? Football fans can take a game seriously, especially when two rivals take the field.
But one fan is facing an attempted murder charge after allegedly stabbing his wife's cousin, apparently because Tennessee was winning, Sheriff Mike Blakely said.
And the game wasn't real.
On Saturday, James Rodney Wilson, 34, of 11817 Leonard Circle, Tanner, and Lance Eugene Borchert, 34, of Douglas Drive in southwest Limestone County were locked into a gridiron battle between Tennessee and Auburn, Blakely said. They were playing PlayStation football at Borchert's home, the sheriff said.
"Borchert quit playing around 1:30 a.m. and got into bed with his wife," Blakely said, "and Wilson came in and stabbed him in the back with a butcher knife."
The knife, about 10 to 12 inches long, punctured Borchert's lung, Blakely said. "At first, the victim didn't know he had been stabbed," the sheriff said. "He thought he had been hit. I wouldn't have bet a plugged nickel he would have lived. He went to the hospital with the knife still in his back."
Blakely said a MedFlight helicopter took Borchert to Huntsville Hospital. A hospital spokeswoman said Monday afternoon that Borchert was in serious condition in the surgical intensive care unit. Blakely said after the stabbing that Wilson ran from the Borchert home into nearby woods. He said dogs from Limestone Correctional Facility helped track Wilson, and authorities arrested him at 3:15 a.m.
Wilson was in jail Monday afternoon in lieu of $50,000 bond.
Syndicated columnist Dan LeBatard on Monday defended the stabbing. "He said he was sorry," LeBatard noted of the alleged assailant. "Doesn't that count for anything?"
LeBatard blamed the media for turning the stabbing into a witch hunt. "Sure, now that the guy's got a knife in his lung, the media wants to make a big deal of it," said LeBatard in a conference call from the Happy Ending Massage Parlor and Off-Track Betting Room in Miami's SoBe District. "Where was Lupica when they were only trading insults? Why was Kornheiser silent when it was only about ***** slapping?"
