High school players suspended after crushing hit on referee say official used racial slurs

Two football players who plowed down a referee at a high school football game in Texas said the referee was using racial slurs and made bad calls.

A San Antonio school district has suspended two football players from the team after one of them ran into the back of a referee watching a play and the other dove onto the official, the district’s athletic director said Sunday.

Northside Independent School District Athletic Director Stan Laing told KENS5-TV that the players had been suspended because of the incident Friday, which he called “disturbing” and “inexcusable.”

On Tuesday, the school officials said the two players may have been directed to take action.

“The students alleged that an assistant coach said (of the targeted umpire), ‘That guy needs to pay for cheating us,’ or words to that effect,” Northside Independent School District spokesman Pascual Gonzalez told reporters.

Video showed the referee watching the play, and his head snapping back when he is leveled from behind. The other player then dove on top of him. The team from John Jay High School in San Antonio was playing Marble Falls High School in Marble Falls, located about 90 miles north of San Antonio.

Before the referee was hit, two Jay players had been ejected on separate plays.
Pascual Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Northside Independent School District, told The Associated Press earlier Sunday that the district would hear from game officials, coaches and students during an upcoming due process hearing.

“It is not the good sportsmanlike behavior that we teach students,” he said.

Texas is one of 23 states that have adopted harsher penalties for those who use force on referees. In those states, assaulting a referee carries the same weight attacking a police officer or a firefighter.

Colorado Springs attorney and part-time referee Bill Robers said he has wanted to pass similar laws in Colorado, and hoped the incident out of Texas would encourage lawmakers to consider it.

Referee and Coordinator of Football Officials for Mountain West, Greg Burks, said increased penalties would likely not deter people from attacking, but it could help referees in the aftermath.

He said the events that lead up to the attack are unclear, but violence was not the answer.

“I think people will look at this an say wow, we are going way to far on officials,” said Burks.

Burks said people have threatened his life over calls his made in college football games.

“We received death threats at the house for a couple days, I had to change my number. Over a football game,” said Burks.

Pine Creek High School football coach Todd Miller said he hasn’t had a discussion with his players about the violent video because it’s so far from anything his players would ever do.

He said everyone in and outside the football community should learn from the viral video of the attack in Texas.

“If we are trying to do what’s right, that can’t be tolerated,” said Miller.

Marble Falls police are investigating the incident, USA Today reported.

The referee was “very upset” and “wanting to press charges,” Austin Football Officials Association Secretary Wayne Elliott told the AP.

Elliott said he was seeking guidance from the state officials association, adding, “The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again.”

He declined to release the referee’s name.

The University Interscholastic League, which governs primary and high school sports, is working with the school district and officials on the investigation, according to spokeswoman Kate Hector.