If you don't immediately think of The Karate Kid 2 when you read that headline, something is wrong with you.
Ahem, but the story, per ESPN.com:
A "flat-out brawl" broke out in USC's football locker room after the Trojans' 21-7 loss to Georgia Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl, multiple sources have told ESPN.
The altercation, earlier reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, began when one of the team's younger players was "bad-mouthing Matt Barkley." The player questioned why the injured quarterback did not play and challenged USC's collective senior leadership.
Barkley, in speaking with ESPN's "The Herd With Colin Cowherd," said that "tempers flared" but that no punches were thrown.
"I would say tempers flared, yeah, but that's football," Barkley said. "It's an emotional game, and when you end your season on a negative note like that, emotions are going to be high. Guys were expressing their opinions, for better or worse, but we had it under control. It was nothing to be alarmed about."
"If you ask some of the guys who were there what happened they'll negate those claims about people throwing punches and all that stuff or whatever was said," Barkley said. "Obviously, in the locker room after that game, which was a loss, there's gonna be words exchanged. People weren't in the best mood, but that wasn't to say we were fighting each other or there was an altercation."
One USC player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that he arrived at the locker room a few minutes after most of the team but saw a scene he described as "pure chaos," though he never saw punches thrown.
