A 7-year-old boy playing a game of backyard football was tackled by a deer.
Brandon Hiles said he encountered the buck when the ball rolled into woods while he was playing with friends Saturday in Wintersville, about 125 miles east of Columbus.
Brandon told WTOV that the buck "started charging" at him, flipping him with its antlers, leaving bruises and a gash.
His 9-year-old friend Wyatt Pugh beat the deer with a stick to make it go away.
Wintersville Police Officer Art Fowler Jr. said there were actually two bucks in the area gearing up for a fight, and Brandon was attacked when he inadvertently got between them.
"The male deer are coming into rut," he told WTOV. "What that means is, they're starting to get aggressive. Their hormones are starting to come into play."
Mary Ann Pugh, the older boy's grandmother, said that she always thought that when anyone got close to a deer it was "going to run."
"But he didn't," she added.
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