(Above: Video of Michelle Prichett fighting Oklahoma fans at the Sugar Bowl)
Yellowhammer has learned that the female Alabama fan who flew through the air to attack an Oklahoma Sooner fan during Thursday’s Sugar Bowl is Michelle Pritchett, a local photographer from Sweet Water, Ala.
Yellowhammer spoke with Mrs. Pritchett on the phone this afternoon in an exclusive interview, becoming the first outlet to get her side of the story.
“Everyone’s making me look like such a bad guy,” Pritchett said. “What I did was probably not the thing to do. But they were taunting us. They began by going after me. But then they crossed the line and started taunting my 16-year-old son.”
At that point, Pritchett says she walked over to the Oklahoma fans to ask them to “leave her son out of it.”
“It started off being friendly, just us going back and forth about the game,” Pritchett recalled. “But what ended up happening had nothing to do with the game. It escalated. When they said something to my son, I told them to shut their mouths. They were telling my son to come down there and ‘do something about it.’ I said, ‘no, that’s not going to happen. This crap needs to stop.’”
As Pritchett’s husband pulled her back the first time she approached the Sooner fans, Pritchett says one of the Sooners called her a “stupid b****” and that’s when she ran across the aisle and dove on top of them.
“The security people had already gotten on to those guys for throwing bottles at people,” Pritchett said. “When they escorted me out, the security guard told them there was no reason to be pressing charges on me because those guys were out of control the whole game. I defended my son. If they had kicked those boys out to begin with, it wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”
Pritchett said she regrets that things escalated the way they did and said she wanted to apologize to “Bama nation.” Her biggest concern seemed to be what Coach Saban’s reaction would be when reporters question him about it.
“I’m embarrassed. I love The Tide and I apologize to all the players and to Coach Saban and to the entire fan base. I’m sorry. Coach Saban’s going to say ‘those crazy fans don’t know how to act.’ And I wasn’t intoxicated either. I want people to know that. I’d had a couple of drinks, but I was not intoxicated.”
But Pritchett says she’d do it all again if she had to.
“I hate to say it, but I’d do it again if I had to. I’m not going to let anyone go after my son.”
RELATED: OU fan says flying Bama mom was drunk and acting ‘like a monkey that hasn’t evolved’
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