‘I helped out security’: the backstory behind Bobby Wagner’s viral NFL hit

National Football League linebacker Bobby Wagner laid one of the season’s most jarring hits this week on an animal rights advocate who ran on to the field of a game to protest about criminal charges filed against two other activists.

“I just saw somebody running on the field, and [it looked like] he wasn’t supposed to be on the field,” Wagner, who plays for the Los Angeles Rams, said when reporters asked him about tackling the protester on Monday night. “I saw security was having a little problem, so I helped them out.”

Video of Wagner lowering his right shoulder and flattening the protester – after the demonstrator ran past stadium security guards and up the sideline while holding a pink smoke grenade – during the Rams’ game against the San Francisco 49ers quickly went viral, with some speaking approvingly of the player’s intervention.

The main television broadcast didn’t show the moment, but angles of it were captured on cellphone video and an alternate feed.

“Yes! Yes! That’s what we’re talking about,” former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning said while commentating on one of the alternate broadcasts of the game, which the 49ers hosted. “Wagner, a veteran linebacker – get him down. Now, get out, and let these guys take over.”

What set the stage for the viral moment pitting Wagner against the protester he leveled was the alleged decision by members of the San Francisco-area animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere to break into Utah’s Circle Four Farms pork production facility in 2017 and take two piglets to save them from being slaughtered.

Authorities later charged five members of Direct Action Everywhere, with three taking plea deals, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Two didn’t, and that pair – Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer – are scheduled to undergo a jury trial beginning on Wednesday.

To raise awareness of the charges that Hsiung and Picklesimer are being tried for, multiple members of Direct Action Everywhere attended the 49ers-Rams game at Levi’s Stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Two came down from the stands, evaded security and ran on to the field carrying grenades emitting pink smoke. Security guards corralled the first of the demonstrators but struggled to stop the second one.

That’s when Wagner, who coincidentally played college football at Utah State, stepped forward and drilled his shoulder into the fleeing protester’s chest.

Rams linebacker Takkarist McKinley also grabbed at the demonstrator as Wagner hit him. That put a definitive end to the game’s interruption, with security staff soon hauling the felled protester out of view.

Multiple media outlets identified the protester tackled by Wagner as Alex Taylor.

TMZ reported that Taylor later went to local police and filed a complaint over his being tackled by Wagner and McKinley.

In a statement to TMZ, Direct Action Everywhere – which has previously been linked to similar protests at other sporting events – said the report centered on a “blatant assault” on Taylor by two Rams players.

Wagner hasn’t been arrested or otherwise charged despite the complaint.

Taylor and the other protester, for their part, received citations after intruding the field.

Wagner’s hit on Monday was far from the best-known moment of his playing career. He helped the Seattle Seahawks win a Super Bowl over Manning’s Denver Broncos at the end of the 2013 season and has earned a coveted Associated Press first-team, All-Pro selection six times.

Meanwhile, if convicted at their trial of charges of felony theft and burglary, Hsiung and Picklesimer could face more than 10 years in prison.