Northwestern player deletes social media after dirty play vs. Ohio State football

The Ohio State football team took down Northwestern 31-7 on Saturday afternoon in Wrigley Field. It was another solid win from the Buckeyes. Despite the slow start, the Ohio State Buckeyes were able to get the win. Despite the win, one certain play marred the victory for Ohio State.

That play was early in the second half. The Buckeyes threw a pass to Jeremiah Smith over the middle on a third-down play. He then took it 68 yards down the field to set up the Buckeyes in a good spot. They would eventually score a touchdown, but the end of that play was an issue.

It was an issue because of how Smith got tackled. After he was already down and the play was over, Northwestern defender Robert Fitzgerald twisted Smith's ankle. He did it in a way that suggested he was intentionally trying to hurt him. Smith eventually limped off the field after that play. Now, Fitzgerald is facing backlash.

After dirty tackle of Ohio State football player Jeremiah Smith, Robert Fitzgerald deletes X account

As soon as that play happened, Ohio State football fans instantly called it out for being dirty. It was a clearly dirty play. Over the course of the rest of the game, Fitzgerald took a lot of abuse on X, formerly known as Twitter. In fact, he took so much that he had to delete his account.

Personally, I don't ever tweet at players for poor performances. I certainly never did before NIL. Now that these players are getting paid, it opens the door for more people to tag players in messages. They are essentially professional athletes at this point, so it comes with the territory.

Ohio State football fans were clearly angry with what Fitzgerald did, but it should never get to the point that someone has to delete their account because of the messages being sent their way. The Big Ten should look at the play and implement some sort of discipline, though.

It looks like Smith is going to be fine for next week's game against Indiana. He was walking with a slight limp after the game, but you can bet he's going to be getting a bunch of treatment every day before the game.