If you follow professional football and wonder about the many players who act out on or off the field, a story out of San Antonio reveals that it starts early. At a game Friday night, with a minute remaining on the clock and the John Jay High School Mustangs trailing, a player for that team deliberately barreled into an official whose back was to him, knocking the man down. Son after, a second Mustangs player dove onto the official, who was still on the ground, leading with his helmet. For what it’s worth, the Mustangs went on to lose to rival Marble Falls 16-9.
But much more than a game was lost that night. According to San Antonio station KENS, Northside Independent School District Athletic Director Stan Laing said in an interview said the two players involved in the incident had been suspended from both the team and from school, pending an investigation.
For better or worse, the ugly incident was captured in its entirety on video, which has gone viral.
But here is where the story gets even worse. Laing, who acknowledged that the behavior the players exhibited was “disturbing and inexcusable,” went on to say that the video clip tells “only part of the story”:
After he [the official] got knocked down and he got back up, he ejected one of the wrong kids. No. 12 and No. 81 are the ones involved in the video, but No. 81 did not get ejected. No. 12 and No. 7, who came over after the play, got ejected.
Laing’s comment, if it is intended to exonerate the students by suggesting there were extenuating circumstances, makes no sense in terms of its own chronology. More importantly, nothing could condone the behavior of the two teens captured in the video.
According to the Associated Press, the official is considering pressing charges. Austin Football Officials Association secretary Wayne Elliott said, “The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again.”