Jermaine Burton is unsure what he feels about fans storming fields.

During his two years at Alabama, the wide receiver had one or two notable interactions with fans, typically limited to smack talk on social media. However, when the Tide suffered its first loss in 15 years to Tennessee in 2022, Burton was caught on video swiping toward a fan as he tried to clear a path to the locker room.

Similar incidents have occurred this basketball season with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Duke’s Kyle Filipowski colliding with spectators after massive upsets at Ohio State and Wake Forest. Burton was asked about lessons learned from his experience and what he thinks about the state of a college sports staple.

“It was pretty much just an emotional thing that goes on. Like I said, I’m a passionate player for the game. Nothing against anybody, but it’s really just an emotional time, especially if it does come to a situation where the field or court will be stormed. Players are really emotional about the game of basketball and football, it just naturally comes with loving the game,” Burton said Friday at the NFL scouting combine.

Burton agreed with public sentiment that more schools must better protect athletes “depending how their court of field storming goes.” Coaches and analysts have argued the practice should be outlawed, creating a larger debate on the eve of College Football Playoff games coming to campuses next winter.

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne denounced field storming at a press event in Birmingham on Monday. He reasoned that schools should have to forfeit their win if they can’t keep a sizable portion of the crowd away from players. UA team managers have gotten “pushed down and bruised up pretty bad,” per Byrne. While the Southeastern Conference has a penalty system that fines schools, Byrne admitted students don’t care about finances when a clock is ticking toward zeroes.

Burton, Alabama’s most consistent pass-catcher the last two seasons, flourished in big moments and celebrated accordingly. Following UA’s win over Georgia in the 2023 SEC Championship, Burton jogged over to a group of Bulldogs fans in the stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and flashed a heart signal with his hands. He chuckled when recounting it to reporters in Indianapolis.

“Everybody’s got a character. Jermaine is a character, a great worker, hard worker,” former teammate at Georgia Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint said. “There was a lot of um, during the season there was a lot of, I guess hate going on about him I guess. At the end of the day, he’s just a kid playing football. He don’t mean no harm.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].