Over the weekend, Marcus Freeman was attending his son's wrestling match when a verbal altercation took place between some members of Freeman's family and an assistant wrestling coach, Chris Fleeger. Later, Fleeger filed a police report accusing Freeman of assault, putting the Notre Dame head coach in some hot water.
The report surfaced, and of course, the media ran with it, but the university was quick to release a statement saying that Freeman was not in the wrong here. His son, Vinny Freeman, was being verbally accosted by Fleeger during his match, and after his loss, Freeman escorted his son off the mat and chose to take him out of the situation.
There was an incidental touching that Fleeger took as assault and filed charges, but they were later dismissed after the police deemed there was no evidence of true assault or battery. Freeman will not face charges and has been cleared of any sort of problems.
Marcus Freeman doesn't shy away from speaking about dismissed assault charges
Freeman spoke to the media on Thursday, and he could have opened his press conference talking about anything, but he wanted to talk about the assault charges first. Freeman didn't try to spin it any way; he didn't try to make excuses; he simply stated his side of it all and left it at that.
"The reality is, I behaved in a respectable manner while protecting my family, and that should been the only headline," Freeman said.
Marcus Freeman is here, and he’s starting with a statement on the recent allegations against him.
— Jack Soble (@jacksoble56) January 14, 2026
Among other things:
“The reality is, I behaved in a respectable manner while protecting my family, and that should have been the only headline.” pic.twitter.com/rQLtB0s5MT
Freeman spoke a lot about the situation, thanking the university for standing by him before the video evidence that disproved the accusations was even released. He even called out one media outlet, one he would not name, for reporting untrue facts on the story that caused the headline of everything to be sensationalized and simply untrue.
While the facts were not all out there, Freeman was disappointed to see a media outlet run a story with half the truth. Freeman was simply trying to protect his family, as would any father, and he knew that once the truth came out, everyone would see just that.