COLUMBIA, Mo. — Jack Foster heard the sound of barstools scraping across the floor.
The commotion came from behind him. At first, he thought it might have been a fight breaking out.
“Oh my God,” his wife, Heather, said. “Jack, that guy’s choking.”
On the other side of Bud’s Classic BBQ in downtown Columbia, Peter Burns was, in fact, choking. The SEC Network anchor and ESPN radio personality was eating with conference commissioner Greg Sankey and the broadcast crew for Saturday’s football game when a piece of steak became lodged in his throat.
“I knew something was wrong,” Burns said.