Ex-coach claims Oakland Raiders incident spurred beer bottle fight

April 26, 2013

A former Cal Poly football coach on trial for assault says that he defended himself against a rabid Oakland raiders fan during an August 2012 fight outside a Pismo Beach bar. [Tribune]

Randy Hanson, a Cal Poly defensive backs coach at the time, said that in the early morning of August 4, 2012, James Kelsey became belligerent outside Harry’s Night Club & Beach Bar in Pismo Beach and instigated a fight with him over an incident that occurred while Hanson was an assistant coach with the Oakland Raiders.

In 2009, Hanson said Raiders head coach Tom Cable threw him from a chair during a heated argument, fracturing his jaw and ruining his relationship with the team. Hanson later sued Cable, but dropped the case.

Hanson says that during the altercation in Pismo Beach Kelsey, a rabid Raiders fan, told him he wasn’t a Raider and called him a “pussy.” Kelsey later reached into a limousine that Hanson was inside and grabbed his shirt, tearing it, Hanson says.

At that point, the former coach struck Kelsey with a beer bottle, breaking his nose and giving him a concussion.

Hanson’s attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu said during his closing argument that the former coach was defending himself against someone who probably weighed 50 to70 pounds more than him.

But, Deputy District Attorney Sandra Mitchell said Hanson hit Kelsey because he was confused after drinking 10 glasses of wine.

“Maybe in his mind, when he woke up in his drunken stupor, somebody was attacking him,” Mitchell said. “Maybe he had a conversation about Tom Cable and they called him that derogatory term. But it wasn’t Jim Kelsey.”