Montana Football Player Clotheslined by a Grizzly Bear

As a wide receiver Roman Morris is used to taking some hard shots, but nothing like this:

BILLINGS, Mont. — Carroll College freshman wide receiver Roman Morris had never been tackled like this before.

Morris, who was bow hunting with two friends, was crouched on a hillside north of Gardiner at dawn Saturday when a female grizzly bear that was walking by turned and attacked him.

"It charged down the hill and just drilled me," said Morris, 21, of Whitewater.

Over the next 30 to 45 seconds, Morris fought with the bear as it bit and clawed, severed his left hamstring, punctured his shoulder, chomped at his head and tossed him around.

"I thought the whole time, This is so messed up. I'm going to die, I'm going to die,"' said Morris, a pre-med major.

The bear ran off after a friend fired a pistol. Morris underwent surgery at a Livingston hospital and was recuperating Monday at his brother's house in Helena.
"I still have a pretty dang good headache from the whole thing," he told The Billings Gazette in a telephone interview.

Good thing the antigun nuts hadn't succeeding in keeping his buddy from having a pistol handy.