TX High School Football Players Suspended For Deliberately Hitting Official



In one of the ugliest incidentss ever to take place on a high school football field, two players from a San Antonio high school have been suspended from the team after they deliberately hit an official during a Friday night game.

John Jay High School in San Antonio
John Jay High School in San Antonio

John Jay High School of San Antonio traveled to Marble Falls High School in the Hill Country on Friday night. Marble Falls was ahead 15-9 with about a minute left in regulation, and was trying to run out the clock. The back judge was watching a running play develop in front of him when he was flattened by a John Jay defensive back who barreled in from seven yards away. Another player then rushed in from several yards away and dove into the stricken official while leading with his helmet. Watch video taken by a spectator here:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNCrs63JeuM&w=853&h=480]

Both players were immediately ejected from the game, and faced a minimum one-game suspension under national high school rules. However, on Sunday morning the Northside Independent School District announced that the two players have been suspended from the team indefinitely pending an investigation by the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for all extracurricular public high school activities in Texas. NISD spokesman Pascual Gonzales told KENS in San Antonio that district officials will ramp up their own investigation on Tuesday and interview coaches, players and anyone else who saw this incident.

At first glance, this appeared to be a cut-and-dried situation. Kick the players off the team, permanently ban them from ever playing ANY high school sport in Texas again, suspend them from school for at least a month, and arrest them for assault and battery. Indeed, according to Wayne Elliott, a spokesman for the Austin Football Officials Association, the official has let it be known that he wants to press charges against the players. But according to SB Nation, several players and students from John Jay have tweeted that the official was yelling racial slurs at their teammates. If that’s the case, that does not and should not excuse what these players did. There is no excuse for ever deliberately going after an official. Period, full stop.

And regardless of whether they were provoked or not, i hope that prosecutors are at least considering charges of felonious assault. When I learned about the reports that the official was yelling racial slurs, I wondered if it was still appropriate to consider criminal charges. But if you know anything about football, those two players came in from enough of a distance that they had ample time to turn out of the way. Moreover, the first player hit the official from behind, and the second player hit him when he was already on the ground and defenseless. That is way beyond something that can just be handled at the district and high school association level, even if it was provoked.

If it does turn out that the players were provoked by a knuckledragging official, John Jay’s coaches have some explaining to do. In situations like this, the players are supposed to understand early on that they need to let their coaches know that the officials are stepping way out of line. If I had been a coach and I’d learned an official was yelling racial slurs at my players, I would have played the rest of the game under protest and seriously considered pulling my team off the field. I know that if I’d pulled my team off the field, it would have resulted in a forfeit, and possibly put me at risk of being suspended. But there is no way, no how, that I would tolerate my players enduring that kind of abuse from a knuckledragging official. Unless the coaches have a really good explanation for why the players didn’t know they could tell their coaches what was going on, you have to wonder if they should still be on the sidelines.


That being said, though, there is no excuse whatsoever for what these two players apparently did. By all means, they should never be allowed to suit up anywhere in Texas again, and when all is said and done they should be suspended from school for a very long time. You simply cannot tolerate players taking matters into their own hands in this manner. And if they didn’t know that they are supposed to let their coaches know when an official is stepping out of line–if this is indeed what happened–you’d have to at least consider whether the coaches should keep their jobs.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.