{"id":605280,"date":"2026-02-21T07:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/605280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:21:13","slug":"pacemaker-was-reason-for-smacking-fans-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/605280\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacemaker was reason for smacking fan&#8217;s phone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg cited medical issues as the reason for smacking an Iowa fan\u2019s phone after they upset the Cornhuskers earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Hoiberg, who went <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/18\/sports\/nebraskas-fred-hoiberg-smacks-phone-out-of-iowa-fans-hand\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">viral after swiping toward a fan<\/a> while they were recording him following the Hawkeyes\u2019 57-52 win over Nebraska on Tuesday, said he relies on a pacemaker and that close contact with cellphones could interfere with the device.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am 100 percent reliant on a pacemaker,\u201d Hoiberg told reporters on Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/47989295\/nebraska-hoiberg-cites-pacemaker-reason-swiping-iowa-fan-phone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per ESPN<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget a conversation with my doctor. A cellphone can put it off. If anything ever happens, I\u2019m done. I will not survive if something ever happens to a pacemaker.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38558678\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nebraska-head-coach-fred-hoiberg-121597799_279476.jpg\" alt=\"Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg reacts during an NCAA basketball game.\" class=\"wp-image-38558678\"  \/>Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg reacts to a call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in Iowa City, Iowa. AP<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very cognizant of that, so when somebody rushes up on me with a cellphone, of course I\u2019m going to react.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoiberg \u2014 a 10-year NBA veteran  \u2014 said that although a pacemaker disruption was unlikely, the chances of him even needing the device in the first place were also low.<\/p>\n<p>During the tense interaction, Hoiberg also accidentally hit a member of Iowa\u2019s staff, for which the seventh-year Nebraska coach said he apologized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a heated moment,\u201d Hoiberg said. \u201cI was going through the handshake line congratulating Iowa coaches on a hard-fought win, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this kid rushes up on me, and I reacted to it. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38558675\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Fred-2_5120f3.jpg\" alt=\"Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery shoving a player on the court.\" class=\"wp-image-38558675\"  \/>Hoiberg also accidentally hit a member of Iowa\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think anybody in my position, after a game like that, would\u2019ve reacted in a similar way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoiberg added that although he does not particularly have an issue with storming the court, he does not want to see players and coaches put in danger.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa also released a statement in which it apologized for the lack of security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe apologize for this incident and will conduct a review of our procedures and security measures to determine what adjustments may be needed to further strengthen our protocols and help prevent similar incidents in the future,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>Nebraska is set to host Penn State on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg cited medical issues as the reason for smacking an Iowa fan\u2019s phone after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":605281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[3257,2076,196836,1379,11995,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-605280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-big-ten","tag-college-basketball","tag-fred-hoiberg","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116107417237111697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}