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Wisconsin, Minnesota tussle after Badgers' win

As the Badgers went to "chop" down the Gophers' goal post with Paul Buyan's Axe, a brief altercation ensued.

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

After Wisconsin's 20-7 win over Minnesota Saturday, a brief altercation ensured at TCF Bank Stadium. As is tradition, the winner of the annual rivalry game seizes possession of Paul Bunyan's Axe and proceeds to chop down the opposing team's goal post.

The Badgers have now won 10 straight games against the Gophers, and unsurprisingly, Minnesota wasn't exactly thrilled by yet another chop down. Still, tradition is tradition, and they knew it was coming. Perhaps this was a rallying cry for a much improved squad trying to fully turn the corner under Jerry Kill.

Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen discussed the incident after the game (starting at 1:10 in the video below), noting he thought the Badgers weren't out of line and that he tried to intervene before a police officer stopped him.

"That's the first time I've been around that," Andersen said. "I don't think you deserve to get pushed out of the way. It's not right.

"The kids, in my opinion, were not out of control. We don't want to get into those situations, but you're supposed to carry yourself like an adult in those scenarios and I don't want somebody pointing a finger in my face when it's supposedly their job to protect the kids and be the security for the stadium."

Per various media outlets, including BadgerBlitz.com's John Veldhuis, several Badgers players said they understood why the Gophers might take issue with the chop down. Minnesota quarterback Phillip Nelson was one such player who spoke out.

Other UW players said they could understand why the Gophers didn't want to let the Badgers "chop" down one of their goal posts, with Gopher quarterback Philip Nelson saying "it's a pride thing" when asked why he and his teammates stood near the goal post to prevent the Badgers from celebrating near it.

"We were trying to wait for them to leave because they were singing their school song and stuff," Beau Allen said after the game. "We went to go chop it down but never got it done. It's understandable. It's an emotional game. We're at their home turf wanting to chop down their goal posts, I'm sure we'd feel the same way."

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