SPRUCE GROVE — He didn’t earn any stats for it, but Ryan King came up with what was easily the most satisfying tackle of the game.

The Edmonton Eskimos long-snapper put an end to a trespassing fan’s jaunt around SMS Equipment Field during Saturday’s Northern Kickoff in Fort McMurray.

It was almost as if it was a drill straight out of training camp: the overzealous man found himself running a gauntlet, taking a shoulder charge from defensive tackle Eddie Steele before being wrapped up and taken down in textbook form by King.

With RCMP in what could best be described as luke-warm pursuit of the intruder, who had been parading around the field after hopping a barricade midway through the third quarter, the chase got real interesting as it neared the Eskimos sideline.

“I didn’t get enough of him, I didn’t want to hurt myself so I just gave him a little nudge,” Steele said after the 31-24 preseason win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. “I softened him up and then Kinger cleaned him up.

“I knew once he saw me go, the green light was on.”

The last time one of the Eskimos was involved in chasing a fan on the field was at the reincarnated Empire Stadium in 2010, when former defensive tackle Dario Romero faked like he was about to go after a fleet-footed flasher wearing nothing but socks. It fooled 2007 first-overall draft pick Adam Braidwood into taking a few steps in pursuit before stopping amid warning shouts from teammates, reminding him: “Adam, You’re chasing a naked guy!”

“You occasionally get the streaker who goes on the field,” King said. “Thankfully he didn’t streak, he was just running this time, right?

“We just finished punting and were about to run off the field and I saw him run by me originally. Then I saw all the cops chasing him, so I just assumed he’d get caught in the corner. Sure enough, he made his way back somehow and was running toward the bench.

“Eddie kind of jumped out at him and I kind of stood off to the side to let him run by me, and before I knew it, he was coming right at me.”

So, the special-teams staple did what any good soldier would do when faced head-on with an eminent collision …

“I don’t even know,” King said, grinning. “Multiple thoughts went through my head with what I was potentially going to do there. I figured I should just probably throw him on the ground there.”

While it wasn’t exactly gently, the takedown was far from the crushing blow King has been known to dish out over what has so far been a four-year CFL career with his hometown Eskimos.

“I’m thinking (at the time) I might get sued here? What’s going on?” said the five-foot-11, 218-pound St. Mary’s product. “It kind of happened really fast.”

It turns out player safety takes the forefront in such cases, giving the green light to defend themselves against a perceived threat.

“You kind of dream of that as a kid: One day this streaker’s going to come and you always see them on TV getting smoked by the stadium staff,” King said. “But, no. I was just trying to put him down so we could get the game going, get the win and get home.”

As if there weren’t already enough interruptions in a game featuring 60 penalty flags (55 accepted) from all the new rules, they didn’t need any actual rule-breakers goofing off on the field.

“There have been a couple of occasions, it always happens,” King said. “Those streakers are running like they’re free out there, not realizing there’s a bunch of professional football players who are pros at tackling and chasing dudes down.

“It was a super random event, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience right there and I was just hoping coaches weren’t going to get mad at me when I came off the field.”

Turns out, it stood up to Chris Jones’s evaluation.

“It was a great tackle,” the head coach said, laughing. “(Steele) started to get him, he said, ‘Nah, too much work.’

“Probably a good thing King got him because the guy behind him was not running him down.”

Anyone getting any bright ideas should know anyone trespassing on the field at Commonwealth Stadium during games faces a minimum $2,500 fine and immediate ejection.

gerry.moddejonge@sunmedia.ca

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