Empire kicker says he was punched on team bus

The Albany Empire’s roster is up in the air right now. Some players say they are fired, while others are defending ownership.

Kicker Michael Hall has been with the team for two games now. He made it clear that he’s standing by the Empire, but his teammates confronted him during the interview, saying Hall isn’t telling the whole story regarding the Empire uproar.

Hall was speaking to NewsChannel 13 after he says he was punched in the face by a teammate Sunday on a bus ride back home. He says a brief conversation quickly turned into an attack.

NewsChannel 13 tried to get an interview with the players, who say Hall’s leaving parts of the story out. They said they didn’t want to go on camera with their side of the story, but they say he was antagonizing his teammate before he was hit.

That’s not how Hall explains it.

“He punched me in the face,” Hall said. “I look back, and my first initial thought was OK, what happened? And then somebody’s like, ‘He punched you in the face.’ I’m like OK, so he punched me in the face. Now what?”

Hall says he filed a police report. NewsChannel 13 is working to obtain copies of the report.

“I didn’t want to file no reports, nothing like that, but the fact that he kept on threatening me, I’m 28. Like, I’m not going to go smack an 18-year-old,” Hall said.