Man, 20, falls from upper deck

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ATLANTA -- Two fans attending Friday night's Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome were injured when a 20-year-old man fell from the upper deck and landed on a fan sitting in the mezzanine area.

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ESPN.comA view down from Section 311 at the Georgia Dome, where a man fell during Friday's game.

Georgia Dome officials said the man fell about 35 feet and both patrons were transported to Atlanta Medical Center.

The fan fell from the first row of a Tennessee student area in Section 311 at about 8:40 p.m. during the first half of the Volunteers' game against NC State.

Ryan Coleman, a Tennessee senior from Jackson, Tenn., said the man fell while celebrating Tennessee's second touchdown.

"We were all celebrating. He started pumping fists and was leaning over the rail. He just slipped off," Coleman said. "We looked down. It took forever to get someone down there. He was moving a little bit. It took about 15 minutes to get a stretcher down there."

The incident is being investigated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority Police Department, game organizers said. Authority spokeswoman Jennifer LeMaster said late Friday that she did not know the conditions of the injured fans. She did not release their names.

"We were celebrating, I was watching the extra point and the guy next to me said, 'Dude, somebody just fell,' " said Zach Hethmon, a UT senior from Knoxville, Tenn. "We think his friends ran down there immediately. No one else knew what was going on."

On Thursday, a 25-year-old fan died at Reliant Stadium in Houston after falling from a fifth-floor escalator.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Mark Schlabach | email

College Football and Basketball

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• College football/basketball writer for ESPN.com
• Author of seven books on college football
• Formerly at the Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution