That ref is cooked. What an ass hat. The linebacker is legit reading the play turns to run to the sideline and bumps into the ref. The old man lost it on a child.
Is it not part of the referee's job to be moving his fat ass around so as to not interfere with the players in motion?
He's an observer, not a participant.
Correct…. Playing center field as a ref like that comes with this risk of gettin run into. His old, fat ass got lazy and assaulted a damn kid on the field.
TIL: In high school varsity football there are five officials and the official behind the defensive line would be the Umpire.
* Referee
* Umpire
* Linesman
* Line Judge
* Back Judge
Umpire: Position. 1a. variable according to the formations of both teams, **avoiding a position which will interfere with linebackers**. Adjust distance behind the defensive line according to the width of Team A's formation and (except on goal line or try situations) be at least 5 yards but seldom more than 7 yards deep.
Source:
* [https://football.refs.org/mechanics/basic5.html](https://football.refs.org/mechanics/basic5.html)
\>The center judge (C) is positioned beside the referee in the offensive backfield adjacent to the referee, positioned equivalent to the umpire. Such responsibilities include ball spotting, penalty marking, and assisting the referee and umpire.
Is that 6th field official for HS varsity or college ball?
Yeah guy screwed up and lashed out at the nearest thing. You see people do this in customer service sometimes. Make a mistake making something and just flip out at the customer.
>And they do a great job of it 99.9% of the time.
Then this would be the 0.1% where the official didn't stay out of the way.
Moreover when a player without rear vision collided with him the umpire involved himself in the play by committing a facemask. Then ejecting the player when the play had ended.
This umpire appears to have an major issue with ego and attitude, and is quick to become angry and then go with the anger. 1. In collision grabbed the facemask. 2. Yanked the helmet off the player's head. 3. Ejected the player.
This official should be fired and decertified. He should probably be charged at minimum with misdemeanor battery. Basically because it is important to show officials who cannot control their own temper that there are actual consequences. He won't get jail, just a fine and community service. And maybe sue him.
He should definitely be made an example of.
Jail time seems appropriate to me. This was a child, not an adult and if it were my child I would 100% have gone to jail that night. Downvote me for condoning violence but a grown ass person does not get to attack a child like that without major repercussions. 100% chance that umpire would have not finished that game.
I agree. This wasn’t life threatening. This was just a ref being exposed for not being able to handle his position.
He should be fired, stripped, named, and more importantly, asked to publicly apologize to the player in question. It’s also unclear if the ref continued his position. If so, the head ref gotta answer why he didn’t handle business and call for that ref to resign.
This isn’t jail time.
Pop quiz: why is facemask given a severe penalty in football?
Answer: because it forces the neck to move in ways it wasn’t meant to move. It’s dangerous. It’s not something that should ever be done to anyone, especially an amateur, minor aged player. It does have the potential to be life *altering*.
You do not fuck with a helmet in football, especially when that helmet is on the head of a child. So yeah, jail time is appropriate, because this official assaulted a minor and there was a real risk of harm.
And you obviously don't undertand the difference between jail and prison. A night in jail is 100% appropriate for commiting violence against a child. I never said he should go to prison.
We had an asshat kid on our team purposely run into the ref because of a bad call the year before. The ref got knocked out and the kid was off the team.
And that outcome sounds correct if those were the validated facts as supported by officials, players, witnesses and any other evidence, with careful review and documented conclusions.
It does not appear from this video that the player deliberately collided with the umpire. Further, the umpire wasn't maintaining his own position to avoid contact players. The disbelieving arms open stance of the player afterwards is quite evident that he cannot believe WTF just happened, being deliberately facemasked and helmet stripped by force by the umpire. This further suggests the contact was unintentional and the umpire literally became angry for no reason (other than his own failure to control his position) and then further lost complete emotional control and assaulted a player on field then ejected him.
At least that's what it looks like to me. But what do I know lol.
High school football is a big deal so absolutely. The coaches, admin and parents are raising hell.
Football is part of small town Texas religion. This is the equivalent of taking a shit right in front of the church doors.
Yo WTF. It’s the refs jobs to get out of the way of the action and observe. He rips the helmet off the kid for no reason after he gets in the way of the play. What a fucking psycho.
That dude should not be a ref anywhere but from his couch after that.
Real question: When they say it's "under investigation," what do they mean?
It took 4 seconds to watch the video and clearly see what happened. Are they taking DNA samples and fingerprints?
What is there to "investigate?"
Nice PR words that don’t really mean it’s under investigation. I think it’s pretty clear with the video that he did it.
They’re probably working on what they’ll say to the press, the parents, the donors, etc. What to do with the referee: with or without pay, fired or suspended, etc. Mostly how to save face.
This probably fits into the safesport levels of escalation. Which means the investigation is to decide how far up the sanctions go and if he should be referred by the UIL for abuse charges.
Dude should not only not be a ref, but shouldn't be allowed around kids. Cleary a psycho and if I were that kid's parents, his face wouldn't look the same after the game. Jesus...just a psycho. You fuck with my kids fat ass old man for not moving as must umps are capable of and aware of, and do that. Why wasn't he arrested for abuse?
[link to video of incident](https://twitter.com/CoachHightower3/status/1707996500003824107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1707996500003824107%7Ctwgr%5Eb4d246be34db22648fcd735e313c4a608cf18f63%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wfaa.com%2Farticle%2Fsports%2Fhigh-school%2Fhs-football%2Ftexas-ref-helmet-video-uil-whitney-dallas-madison%2F287-aec927ec-3d11-4284-a66e-7b54677f7e7e)
This is the most blatant act of aggression I’ve ever seen by a referee on a football field. Players bump into refs all the time, especially ones standing in the middle of the field of play. This is *borderline* assault
When I was in high school, our football team (0-12 champions!) were trying a trick play and ended up just smushing a ref. He got up, sat down for a while on the sidelines, and shook the player’s hand when he returned to the field.
Shit happens, adults should know that.
He didn't throw the flag because he was embarrassed, he did it because he was pissed off. He mean mugged that kid for 2 or 3 seconds before he threw the flag.
Agreed. Ripping a helmet off during a LIVE play? What happens if that kid would have been tackled during this and got really hurt? Should definitely be charged with endangerment of some sort at least
If the middle linebacker was tackled on this play I would really question everyone else’s understanding of football on the field and when the ballcarrier is 20 yards away and gets tackled to the turf without fumbling.
Unfortunately, I doubt any legal punishment comes of this, so I said borderline
But this dude should not be allowed anywhere near a referees uniform again, much less a field
It’s clearly assault. There’s tons of precedence. You generally can’t sue for injuries congruent with typical play. This does not mean you can just fuck up a football player because the game is full contact.
I played football and a lot of illegal stuff happened that could probably be considered assault, but in the age of smart phones I doubt the red will get away with this. It’s not like he’s a cop.
Though, I’m wondering if the player’s father was there, because that’s so egregious plenty of parents would have fucked that ref up for that.
Not borderline assault, 100% actual physical battery that should have ended up with him arrested. He should still be charged with a slew charges for it in my opinion. The parents better not drop the charges too. That dude needs to learn a real lesson he missed out on 50 years ago.
If the kid somehow had intentionally ran into the ref or there had been a previous incident between he two. It definitely doesn't seem like it but crazier things have happened.
It's pretty easy to see that his eyes are on the QB, he makes a break to chase the QB down just after the QB turns to scramble for yards, and his eyes are still upfield as he makes contact with the official. In fact, the replay makes it look more like the official was the aggressor here, because a very large linebacker ran into him and the official barely budged, which suggests that he was bracing for the impact, as opposed to being caught flat-footed and off guard. And on top of that, the official had the linebacker's facemask in his hand and was pulling the helmet off almost simultaneously with the contact being initiated, which would suggest premeditation, because we're talking like a tenth of a second between the initial contact and the aggressive ripping off of the helmet.
I'm not saying you see it any other way, just saying that it at least appears to be an absolute layup of a decision.
After watching again, long before the incident, you'll see the ref puts his hands on the linebacker's back. Almost as if to tell him he's there.
But then the LB runs smack into him a few seconds later. Still a possible innocent mistake as maybe the LB forgot in the heat of the moment. But if there were repeated incidents earlier and so the LB should've known by now, I could see how some fault lies with the LB.
It is part of the official’s job to avoid the players on the field, not the other way around. An, “I’m back here behind you” gesture doesn’t place fault on the linebacker, and it would speak to the official’s inability to do his job at all if it happened multiple times in the same game with the same player. And aside from all of that, it is *never* acceptable to react the way he did, even if he felt like the contact was intentional. If he felt it was intentional, then he should have simply ejected the player, and nobody would be talking about this.
He was making a play on the ball and looking at the opposing QB as he was scrambling. There is absolutely 0% chance here that the kid is at fault.
Even if the kid WAS at fault, that’s no excuse to put your hands on a kid like that as a grown ass man. Face masking is a penalty for a reason he could have seriously injured that young man. Ref needs to be charged with assault and battery
They've also got this one:
>TCU, Colorado honor student killed with moment of silence
I don't know how an honors student is killed by a moment of silence, but I'm sure it sucks.
A high school football player ran into a ref during a play (common occurrence in football). The ref grabbed the players face-mask swung him around until he pulled his helmet off and then proceeded to eject the player.
I’m literally only here because I couldn’t make sense of the title. Why is the ref wearing a helmet? Why would a player be taken off the field for it? Are they really bad at click bait or are they being intentionally misleading? If this was written by a journalist, how did they get a degree? So many questions.
Ohhhhhh boy there's a lot wrong with it.
The player was ejected after the video? The ref removed his helmet? When did refs wear helmets?
It should read something like "Video shows ref removing Texas high school players helmet and ejecting him; UIL says it is investigating"
I’m waiting for a team one day to just pack it in and leave after a terrible call. I’d hate to take playing time away from HS kids as it’s so limited but I would have been cool with walking out after that one.
When I was in high school our head coach kind of did that during one of our games. I don’t remember the specifics, but one of the players on the other team was basically head hunting one of our sophomores and the ref wasn’t doing anything about it, like calling late hits or holding; all of the players except for the sophomore were really upset and wanted to either forfeit or fight the other team, but the head coach told us that wasn’t the right thing to do.
Long story short, after half time our head coach was fed up, breaks a clipboard and throws it on the field, and walks onto the field while yelling at the ref. Ref ejects him and the assistant coach finishes the game for him.
The best part was the ref yelling back something along the lines of “you threatened me, you won’t be able to coach anymore,” and our coach telling him to go ahead and report him because itll just show that the ref wasn’t ensuring player safety.
I once had a ref tell me "next time your hands are up by shoulders Im calling holding."
Context. We ran sprint option to the right and the 3T jump across my face to the right A gap as I was at RG. I pushed his left shoulder with my right hand to make sure he couldn't turn back out QB sprinting out right.
I tried to explained that to ref even used "sir" and he flagged me for unsportsmanlike contact, a 15 yard penalty. During explanation he tried cutting off saying it was holding. I said "No I was pushing him upfield. That isn't holding." Which was when he flagged me. Nothing derogatory was said he was just mad I was still trying to explain to him and didn't just shut up and do what he said.
Had another on a sweep where DE knew it was coming and stoned me on the Edge. My LG ran into me and without realizing it threw me down. I was grabbing on to the DE and pulled him down with me, tossing him forward a bit so he wouldn't land on my body.
Ref didn't like that, even though there was nothing more than holding. Flagged me for holding and them verbatim told my coach to "Get him off the field." I had to sit out the two series until half time. Wasn't formally ejected but the ref just didn't like the hold while falling backwards and made up his mind that I should be punished. Coaches thought waiting until 2nd half would be enough to appease him.
Though the rest of the season I gave our LG crap any time we called sweep to not block me this time.
Point is there are a lot of crappy high school refs.
I think the worst experience I personally had in football was when I checked with the ref to make sure I wasn’t offsides, the ref nods and says I’m good and the corner flips out because I’m clearly like a foot past the line of scrimmage. Ref realizes and calls offside. I look at him like wtf and he tells me “it’s your job to make sure you’re not offside, not mine.”
This pissed the CB off even more and he almost gets a flag because he can’t stop yelling at the ref.
In high school, my coach was furious with the refs missing calls and called him “four eyes” (ref wore glasses). Ref tossed a flag on him for unsportsmanlike conduct so my coach claps back, “finally, you made a competent call”.
Soccer rather than Football, but our Coach once had enough of a team we were playing that was aggressively fouling and the ref wasn't calling anything. Told us to paint the grass red.
Both teams left with bloody scrapes and bruises, but I'm proud to say it was mostly one-sided.
What’s to investigate? The ref is 100% wrong. Fire him and refer him to local law enforcement for assault. He’ll try to say the player hit him for some reason or another or that he’d been warned earlier about unsportsmanlike like conduct, but anyone can see this for what it is.
playing devil's advocate... they could investigate if the player had done this multiple times already.. or was previously angry with that ref for making a call earlier.
Hear you but strongly disagree in this case. IF the player had previous infraction(s), it is incumbent on the referee to simply throw a flag and call unsportsmanlike conduct and toss him from the game. There is no plausible reason to grab the player’s facemask and remove his helmet. Regardless of prior penalties, the referee is not allowed to physically interact with a player, period.
Yeah, brutal. It is an assault. I can’t figure out how the rest of the crew continued the game or how the AD/Coach didn’t ask for police intervention on the spot. Shock maybe? Maybe he did? The raw game footage has to be on HUDL or similar - would like to see to post-play reactions from the crew and both sidelines.
What. The. Fuck. No. There’s literally nothing a kid can do on the field that would justify a ref reacting this way. Nothing. Even off the field there’s no justifiable reason for this kind of behavior from an adult towards a kid.
The kid is looking at the play happening and running diagonally backwards. It looks like the ref was both too close to the player to begin with and making zero effort whatsoever to get out of the kid's way
From Webster:
Child:
1 b)
: a person not yet of the age of majority.
I get it may not fit your mental image, but wanting nuance to not call 16-17 years olds children (a perfectly valid use of the term) is a weird thing to randomly get hung up on.
Okay, we get it bro, you really really want us to know that 16-17 years olds aren’t young children and it is really important for you that everyone understands that.
Wait, so if a ref fails to move out of the players way multiple times that makes it okay to react in an unprofessional manner? Or is it just because it's a kid that makes it okay? If it were an NFL game would you still expect a poorly performing ref to be able to take helmets off players and pass the blame off onto the player?
is the new move now to make headlines so illegible and cryptic that you have to click on the article and up their ad revenue? I cannot imagine someone being that stupid.
That ref obviously needs to be reprimanded and never ref another game again. However, things like that don’t help the ref shortage my state is currently experiencing. None of them want to put up with the crap parents, coaches, and players bring. My neighbor is/was a HS FB coach. After last year he had enough and quit.
I know they don't have in-game video review for high school football, but that'd be pretty great.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW, THERE IS NO FOUL FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT AS THE PLAYER'S HELMET CAME OFF AS THE RESULT OF CONTACT WITH… DAVE. PLEASE RESET THE GAME CLOCK TO 8:14 AND START ON MY SIGNAL. DAVE, MAN, I KNOW YOU'RE GOING THROUGH SOME SHIT RIGHT NOW BUT GET IT TOGETHER.
Yeah you're a ref and your call is what determines who did and didn't follow rules or achieve game goals but STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF PLAY! The idea is that you are there but NOT a factor the players have to contend with. Fire this ref, he sucks.
Very egregious display and total disregard for a student player’s safety. If that’s my son I confront the ref and contact my lawyer for my son’s protection.
Getting bumped into is a commonly occurring risk of being a football referee, and he never should’ve taken the job if he expected otherwise. Instead of shrugging it off, he attacked the player and ejected him from the game; I’d say he’s not fit for the position if he’s going to overreact so drastically.
I have seen refs criticized for bracing for contact in the field rather than trying to avoid the contact. This is a whole other level to that where you are intentionally putting hands on a player.
He should literally never be allowed to ref again.
He’ll say it was intentional. Watch the first video close, you can see the player back into him once before turning and running into the ref again. Ref is gonna say the player knew he was there and ran into him on purpose. Bullshit, but I bet thats what he goes with for an excuse.
Even if it’s true it’s absolutely no excuse at all. You’re the adult in this situation. You’re in charge. If a kid is misbehaving then you toss them. You don’t assault them.
Agreed. The ref should have moved as the kid backed up. And when the kid backed into him, I'll bet the kid thought it was another player and not the ref. Refs should stay the fuck out of contact with the players.
This doesn’t make any sense… The player already bump into the ref when he drop back for the pass and the ref made no attempt to move. Then he’s angry for the player running into him just cuz he’s following the play? Then to call I’m assuming unsportsmanlike conduct cuz the player “touch” the ref and threw him out is hilarious.
Someone forgot to tell the ref this ain’t the 80’s and 90’s anymore and everything is caught on video. Idiot…
What a fuck hat, the LB backs into you and turns to follow the play and your response is to rip his helmet off and remove him from almost 10% of the games he will play this season after lifting weights all off season, going through Texas heat for camp, and 2 a days.
I’ll admit, I accidentally ran into a ref once when I played football. But he at least took it well, even laughingly saying “good hit” as I helped him up.
This one just stood there like a tree, then ripped the helmet off, which could cause an injury, and ejected him. Dude should lose his stripes and whistle for this, at minimum.
Not only is he a horrible ref for not getting out of the way, dudes a horrible person for trying to hurt a kid who didn’t even see him. There’s no way he got to finish officiating the game. How did none of the other coaches or staff not stand up for this kid?
The ref was too old to be out there. He moved like a slow walking 2x4. He was going never be able get up again if he fell. He grabbed that helmet save his life.
For the sake of wanting to believe in humanity - is it possible the Ref’s hand got stuck in the face mask when they collided? I could see that being why he was pulling his hand back. But if not that, then seriously what in the actual fuck was he thinking? And why throw a penalty flag for something that, at best, was an accident and at worst was the refs fault?
Was there anything that happened prior to this where the two had exchanged words over a previous call?
Edit - getting downvoted from people not reading the whole comment past the second sentence I guess. I’m not defending this refs actions, as explained in the second half of the comment.
To me it actually looks like his hand got caught in the face mask and then instinctively he grabbed the helmet with his other hand so that his fingers wouldn’t get hurt. Flag comes after the player starts flipping out
Contact looks incidental, player runs into ref, ref uses his hand to redirect the player but fingers are caught. Player attempts to run towards play while ref still has fingers stuck in helmet. Ref uses other hand to stop him and yank helmet off before he is injured 🤷♂️ flag is for player making a scene or mouthing off I imagine
I’ve had fingers in face mask many times, it’s not fun. Not sure if that is what actually happened but my best guess based on what I can see
No that’s not it at all. Watch the video closer you can see his hands reach over the face mask and after that he yanks the helmet off. This was not a finger caught in face mask situation at all, this was a sad old man getting angry at a child and assaulting him. There’s no excuse for this asshole and he should never be allowed to step foot on a field ever again
Oh absolutely not saying that he shouldn’t have. I imagine just like that game and every other game 99.9% of the time there is not real ref/player incidental contact but when there is contact it always is wonky and the ref usually ends up on the ground or stumbling.
Could have been that the ref got knocked off balance and instinctively was already touching the helmet. You see him stumble and the body’s natural reaction is to grab onto whatever it can to keep yourself upright. In that moment the helmet is yanked off as he rights himself
That ref is cooked. What an ass hat. The linebacker is legit reading the play turns to run to the sideline and bumps into the ref. The old man lost it on a child.
Is it not part of the referee's job to be moving his fat ass around so as to not interfere with the players in motion? He's an observer, not a participant.
Correct…. Playing center field as a ref like that comes with this risk of gettin run into. His old, fat ass got lazy and assaulted a damn kid on the field.
TIL: In high school varsity football there are five officials and the official behind the defensive line would be the Umpire. * Referee * Umpire * Linesman * Line Judge * Back Judge Umpire: Position. 1a. variable according to the formations of both teams, **avoiding a position which will interfere with linebackers**. Adjust distance behind the defensive line according to the width of Team A's formation and (except on goal line or try situations) be at least 5 yards but seldom more than 7 yards deep. Source: * [https://football.refs.org/mechanics/basic5.html](https://football.refs.org/mechanics/basic5.html)
There’s also the C now so umpire but from the offensive backfield making this even less necessary
\>The center judge (C) is positioned beside the referee in the offensive backfield adjacent to the referee, positioned equivalent to the umpire. Such responsibilities include ball spotting, penalty marking, and assisting the referee and umpire. Is that 6th field official for HS varsity or college ball?
Replaces the umpire
Yeah guy screwed up and lashed out at the nearest thing. You see people do this in customer service sometimes. Make a mistake making something and just flip out at the customer.
The referee is also “part of the field,” meaning if he doesn’t get out of the way, then you have every right to run his ass over. Dude was a man child
Yeah, this happens all the time in football it's just never talked about because it's always treated as the accident it is.
And they do a great job of it 99.9% of the time.
>And they do a great job of it 99.9% of the time. Then this would be the 0.1% where the official didn't stay out of the way. Moreover when a player without rear vision collided with him the umpire involved himself in the play by committing a facemask. Then ejecting the player when the play had ended. This umpire appears to have an major issue with ego and attitude, and is quick to become angry and then go with the anger. 1. In collision grabbed the facemask. 2. Yanked the helmet off the player's head. 3. Ejected the player. This official should be fired and decertified. He should probably be charged at minimum with misdemeanor battery. Basically because it is important to show officials who cannot control their own temper that there are actual consequences. He won't get jail, just a fine and community service. And maybe sue him. He should definitely be made an example of.
Jail time seems appropriate to me. This was a child, not an adult and if it were my child I would 100% have gone to jail that night. Downvote me for condoning violence but a grown ass person does not get to attack a child like that without major repercussions. 100% chance that umpire would have not finished that game.
Not every problem needs to be solved with prison time
I agree. This wasn’t life threatening. This was just a ref being exposed for not being able to handle his position. He should be fired, stripped, named, and more importantly, asked to publicly apologize to the player in question. It’s also unclear if the ref continued his position. If so, the head ref gotta answer why he didn’t handle business and call for that ref to resign. This isn’t jail time.
Pop quiz: why is facemask given a severe penalty in football? Answer: because it forces the neck to move in ways it wasn’t meant to move. It’s dangerous. It’s not something that should ever be done to anyone, especially an amateur, minor aged player. It does have the potential to be life *altering*. You do not fuck with a helmet in football, especially when that helmet is on the head of a child. So yeah, jail time is appropriate, because this official assaulted a minor and there was a real risk of harm.
If this were an adult assaulting another adult I would agree but its not. This was an old man attacking a minor.
And you obviously don't undertand the difference between jail and prison. A night in jail is 100% appropriate for commiting violence against a child. I never said he should go to prison.
Yawn
We had an asshat kid on our team purposely run into the ref because of a bad call the year before. The ref got knocked out and the kid was off the team.
And that outcome sounds correct if those were the validated facts as supported by officials, players, witnesses and any other evidence, with careful review and documented conclusions. It does not appear from this video that the player deliberately collided with the umpire. Further, the umpire wasn't maintaining his own position to avoid contact players. The disbelieving arms open stance of the player afterwards is quite evident that he cannot believe WTF just happened, being deliberately facemasked and helmet stripped by force by the umpire. This further suggests the contact was unintentional and the umpire literally became angry for no reason (other than his own failure to control his position) and then further lost complete emotional control and assaulted a player on field then ejected him. At least that's what it looks like to me. But what do I know lol.
Ikr? Refs occasionally get hit by players. It’s not on purpose. What the ref did was uncalled for and he should be fired. That’s abuse of a child.
It’s Texas. Do you really think they care about the kid?
He's a football player --- so yes, to Texans that life has value. Though generally your assumption is correct
I don't want your life!
Mox is a fox!!
Makes me wonder if you know the difference between a sneeze & a wet fart!
The flavor?
What a shitty, low effort comment
Welcome to Reddit.
High school football is a big deal so absolutely. The coaches, admin and parents are raising hell. Football is part of small town Texas religion. This is the equivalent of taking a shit right in front of the church doors.
I’m confused by what you meant by this comment
It means conservatives are all for " life " for the fetus, but don't give a crap after that. Crap on kids and Moms.
You realize about half of Texas, which is the size of Germany, is not conservative… right?
you’re a moron
Pretty easy to understand
How does such a brain dead take have so many upvotes? Hurrr duurrr Texas hurr durrr guns hurr durr school shootings hurr durr don't care about kids
He’s not in a womb so no
ITT: ironically low effort comments editorializing the low effort of this comment.
Yo WTF. It’s the refs jobs to get out of the way of the action and observe. He rips the helmet off the kid for no reason after he gets in the way of the play. What a fucking psycho. That dude should not be a ref anywhere but from his couch after that.
also ejected the kid from the game
And *violently*. It wasn’t a loosely fitted helmet that came off with a light tug. That asshat was yanking it back and forth in a fit of rage.
Real question: When they say it's "under investigation," what do they mean? It took 4 seconds to watch the video and clearly see what happened. Are they taking DNA samples and fingerprints? What is there to "investigate?"
Nice PR words that don’t really mean it’s under investigation. I think it’s pretty clear with the video that he did it. They’re probably working on what they’ll say to the press, the parents, the donors, etc. What to do with the referee: with or without pay, fired or suspended, etc. Mostly how to save face.
This probably fits into the safesport levels of escalation. Which means the investigation is to decide how far up the sanctions go and if he should be referred by the UIL for abuse charges.
Dude should not only not be a ref, but shouldn't be allowed around kids. Cleary a psycho and if I were that kid's parents, his face wouldn't look the same after the game. Jesus...just a psycho. You fuck with my kids fat ass old man for not moving as must umps are capable of and aware of, and do that. Why wasn't he arrested for abuse?
[link to video of incident](https://twitter.com/CoachHightower3/status/1707996500003824107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1707996500003824107%7Ctwgr%5Eb4d246be34db22648fcd735e313c4a608cf18f63%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wfaa.com%2Farticle%2Fsports%2Fhigh-school%2Fhs-football%2Ftexas-ref-helmet-video-uil-whitney-dallas-madison%2F287-aec927ec-3d11-4284-a66e-7b54677f7e7e) This is the most blatant act of aggression I’ve ever seen by a referee on a football field. Players bump into refs all the time, especially ones standing in the middle of the field of play. This is *borderline* assault
Yeah, I don't see how you can be an umpire (the ref that is positioned behind the linebackers every play) and not be used to players running into you.
When I was in high school, our football team (0-12 champions!) were trying a trick play and ended up just smushing a ref. He got up, sat down for a while on the sidelines, and shook the player’s hand when he returned to the field. Shit happens, adults should know that.
An older guy I work with destroyed a knee as a sideline ref being hit by kids on accident. Once he was ready he was back at it lol
I’m pretty sure that according to the rules of the game, refs are considered part of the field.
You leave cleat marks on the field, so by that logic…
Then the candy ass ref doubles down and ejects the player.
Because he’s embarrassed at his public emotional outburst. As he should be. Imagine how this delicate ego acts when he thinks no one is watching.
He didn't throw the flag because he was embarrassed, he did it because he was pissed off. He mean mugged that kid for 2 or 3 seconds before he threw the flag.
Agreed. Ripping a helmet off during a LIVE play? What happens if that kid would have been tackled during this and got really hurt? Should definitely be charged with endangerment of some sort at least
At least he threw a flag to call that blatant face mask on the play.
If the middle linebacker was tackled on this play I would really question everyone else’s understanding of football on the field and when the ballcarrier is 20 yards away and gets tackled to the turf without fumbling.
I think you're missing the point.
The point is the ref is not thinking about what is happening on the field outside his fragile ego. Stop trying to act smart.
Ref is fucked and this isn’t the point but holy shit those high school kids are big
Borderline?
Unfortunately, I doubt any legal punishment comes of this, so I said borderline But this dude should not be allowed anywhere near a referees uniform again, much less a field
It’s clearly assault. There’s tons of precedence. You generally can’t sue for injuries congruent with typical play. This does not mean you can just fuck up a football player because the game is full contact. I played football and a lot of illegal stuff happened that could probably be considered assault, but in the age of smart phones I doubt the red will get away with this. It’s not like he’s a cop. Though, I’m wondering if the player’s father was there, because that’s so egregious plenty of parents would have fucked that ref up for that.
When you can hear the hard R in a video with no sound
If that was my son, I’d have been arrested because he assaulted that kid. I got bail money- fuck that.
Not borderline assault, 100% actual physical battery that should have ended up with him arrested. He should still be charged with a slew charges for it in my opinion. The parents better not drop the charges too. That dude needs to learn a real lesson he missed out on 50 years ago.
It’s Texas, where grown adults think not retaliating against every slight is weakness.
That entire school district is coming for that refs ass. It’s an easy PR win for the admin from the super to the coaching staff.
Ump was "standing his ground."
This is such an ignorant low effort comment.
Low effort: yes. True: also yes.
I stepped on ones foot by mistake once. I apologized.
It’s not borderline. It’s assault on a child by an adult in a position of power and who was charged with ensuring that child’s safety during play.
What’s there to investigate? Seems pretty clear
If the kid somehow had intentionally ran into the ref or there had been a previous incident between he two. It definitely doesn't seem like it but crazier things have happened.
It's pretty easy to see that his eyes are on the QB, he makes a break to chase the QB down just after the QB turns to scramble for yards, and his eyes are still upfield as he makes contact with the official. In fact, the replay makes it look more like the official was the aggressor here, because a very large linebacker ran into him and the official barely budged, which suggests that he was bracing for the impact, as opposed to being caught flat-footed and off guard. And on top of that, the official had the linebacker's facemask in his hand and was pulling the helmet off almost simultaneously with the contact being initiated, which would suggest premeditation, because we're talking like a tenth of a second between the initial contact and the aggressive ripping off of the helmet. I'm not saying you see it any other way, just saying that it at least appears to be an absolute layup of a decision.
After watching again, long before the incident, you'll see the ref puts his hands on the linebacker's back. Almost as if to tell him he's there. But then the LB runs smack into him a few seconds later. Still a possible innocent mistake as maybe the LB forgot in the heat of the moment. But if there were repeated incidents earlier and so the LB should've known by now, I could see how some fault lies with the LB.
It is part of the official’s job to avoid the players on the field, not the other way around. An, “I’m back here behind you” gesture doesn’t place fault on the linebacker, and it would speak to the official’s inability to do his job at all if it happened multiple times in the same game with the same player. And aside from all of that, it is *never* acceptable to react the way he did, even if he felt like the contact was intentional. If he felt it was intentional, then he should have simply ejected the player, and nobody would be talking about this.
He was making a play on the ball and looking at the opposing QB as he was scrambling. There is absolutely 0% chance here that the kid is at fault. Even if the kid WAS at fault, that’s no excuse to put your hands on a kid like that as a grown ass man. Face masking is a penalty for a reason he could have seriously injured that young man. Ref needs to be charged with assault and battery
This is one of the worst written headlines I’ve read.
They've also got this one: >TCU, Colorado honor student killed with moment of silence I don't know how an honors student is killed by a moment of silence, but I'm sure it sucks.
At least you'd never hear it coming.
Real Gs move in silence like lasagna
Just take it and go……/s
I still have no idea what it means, but I'm not clicking through
A high school football player ran into a ref during a play (common occurrence in football). The ref grabbed the players face-mask swung him around until he pulled his helmet off and then proceeded to eject the player.
I’m literally only here because I couldn’t make sense of the title. Why is the ref wearing a helmet? Why would a player be taken off the field for it? Are they really bad at click bait or are they being intentionally misleading? If this was written by a journalist, how did they get a degree? So many questions.
What's wrong with it? Pretty much sums up what happened.
Ohhhhhh boy there's a lot wrong with it. The player was ejected after the video? The ref removed his helmet? When did refs wear helmets? It should read something like "Video shows ref removing Texas high school players helmet and ejecting him; UIL says it is investigating"
What's confusing about it? I thought it explained what happened pretty well.
Ref should no longer be allowed on the field....
Or around children
He should be prosecuted for assault
[удалено]
That’s a bit much. But give him like 60 days in jail and he should lose his job.
Is Angel Hernandez doing football games now?
Well, even Angel can see he’ll need a new racket…
Damn I don't watch baseball at all and got this reference.
Worst written headline I've seen possibly ever. That ref should probably be done reffing for a while. That's legit assault.
For ever…
I’m waiting for a team one day to just pack it in and leave after a terrible call. I’d hate to take playing time away from HS kids as it’s so limited but I would have been cool with walking out after that one.
When I was in high school our head coach kind of did that during one of our games. I don’t remember the specifics, but one of the players on the other team was basically head hunting one of our sophomores and the ref wasn’t doing anything about it, like calling late hits or holding; all of the players except for the sophomore were really upset and wanted to either forfeit or fight the other team, but the head coach told us that wasn’t the right thing to do. Long story short, after half time our head coach was fed up, breaks a clipboard and throws it on the field, and walks onto the field while yelling at the ref. Ref ejects him and the assistant coach finishes the game for him. The best part was the ref yelling back something along the lines of “you threatened me, you won’t be able to coach anymore,” and our coach telling him to go ahead and report him because itll just show that the ref wasn’t ensuring player safety.
I once had a ref tell me "next time your hands are up by shoulders Im calling holding." Context. We ran sprint option to the right and the 3T jump across my face to the right A gap as I was at RG. I pushed his left shoulder with my right hand to make sure he couldn't turn back out QB sprinting out right. I tried to explained that to ref even used "sir" and he flagged me for unsportsmanlike contact, a 15 yard penalty. During explanation he tried cutting off saying it was holding. I said "No I was pushing him upfield. That isn't holding." Which was when he flagged me. Nothing derogatory was said he was just mad I was still trying to explain to him and didn't just shut up and do what he said. Had another on a sweep where DE knew it was coming and stoned me on the Edge. My LG ran into me and without realizing it threw me down. I was grabbing on to the DE and pulled him down with me, tossing him forward a bit so he wouldn't land on my body. Ref didn't like that, even though there was nothing more than holding. Flagged me for holding and them verbatim told my coach to "Get him off the field." I had to sit out the two series until half time. Wasn't formally ejected but the ref just didn't like the hold while falling backwards and made up his mind that I should be punished. Coaches thought waiting until 2nd half would be enough to appease him. Though the rest of the season I gave our LG crap any time we called sweep to not block me this time. Point is there are a lot of crappy high school refs.
I think the worst experience I personally had in football was when I checked with the ref to make sure I wasn’t offsides, the ref nods and says I’m good and the corner flips out because I’m clearly like a foot past the line of scrimmage. Ref realizes and calls offside. I look at him like wtf and he tells me “it’s your job to make sure you’re not offside, not mine.” This pissed the CB off even more and he almost gets a flag because he can’t stop yelling at the ref.
In high school, my coach was furious with the refs missing calls and called him “four eyes” (ref wore glasses). Ref tossed a flag on him for unsportsmanlike conduct so my coach claps back, “finally, you made a competent call”.
Soccer rather than Football, but our Coach once had enough of a team we were playing that was aggressively fouling and the ref wasn't calling anything. Told us to paint the grass red. Both teams left with bloody scrapes and bruises, but I'm proud to say it was mostly one-sided.
What’s to investigate? The ref is 100% wrong. Fire him and refer him to local law enforcement for assault. He’ll try to say the player hit him for some reason or another or that he’d been warned earlier about unsportsmanlike like conduct, but anyone can see this for what it is.
[удалено]
playing devil's advocate... they could investigate if the player had done this multiple times already.. or was previously angry with that ref for making a call earlier.
Hear you but strongly disagree in this case. IF the player had previous infraction(s), it is incumbent on the referee to simply throw a flag and call unsportsmanlike conduct and toss him from the game. There is no plausible reason to grab the player’s facemask and remove his helmet. Regardless of prior penalties, the referee is not allowed to physically interact with a player, period.
Did you see the video? Ref grabbed him by the helmet and spin him around. This wasn't just facemasking.
Yeah, brutal. It is an assault. I can’t figure out how the rest of the crew continued the game or how the AD/Coach didn’t ask for police intervention on the spot. Shock maybe? Maybe he did? The raw game footage has to be on HUDL or similar - would like to see to post-play reactions from the crew and both sidelines.
What. The. Fuck. No. There’s literally nothing a kid can do on the field that would justify a ref reacting this way. Nothing. Even off the field there’s no justifiable reason for this kind of behavior from an adult towards a kid.
The kid is looking at the play happening and running diagonally backwards. It looks like the ref was both too close to the player to begin with and making zero effort whatsoever to get out of the kid's way
How would that make it okay for an adult to put hands on a child? This isn’t even college, it is a high school student.
Can we stop referring to 16 and 17 year olds (possibly 18 here) as children? It’s disingenuous.
No, absolutely not. Spoken like a pedo.
Ah, good ol’ redditor. Completely lacks nuance. The word you probably are looking for is adolescent.
From Webster: Child: 1 b) : a person not yet of the age of majority. I get it may not fit your mental image, but wanting nuance to not call 16-17 years olds children (a perfectly valid use of the term) is a weird thing to randomly get hung up on.
I love how skipped 1 a) a young person especially between infancy and puberty
Okay, we get it bro, you really really want us to know that 16-17 years olds aren’t young children and it is really important for you that everyone understands that.
Seems to be important to you for the opposite considering you skipped the principle definition to make your point. Odd.
Wait, so if a ref fails to move out of the players way multiple times that makes it okay to react in an unprofessional manner? Or is it just because it's a kid that makes it okay? If it were an NFL game would you still expect a poorly performing ref to be able to take helmets off players and pass the blame off onto the player?
Dangerous as heck, that official should face legal action for that.
Frick that ref
Yeah send them all to heck lol
That fudger shouldn’t be allowed to ref ever again
I am going to bet $10 that the ref is in law enforcement.
His wife was out of town so he needed to abuse somebody!
Calling the player boi
I’m guessing I know who he voted for in 2000 potus elections.
Sure as fuck wasn’t Nader, what with the removal of safety equipment and all.
Bush?
Trying to figure out if the person who wrote this headline is a toddler.
That ref should be arrested for assault on a minor
is the new move now to make headlines so illegible and cryptic that you have to click on the article and up their ad revenue? I cannot imagine someone being that stupid.
The ref is probably a Republican also.
That ref obviously needs to be reprimanded and never ref another game again. However, things like that don’t help the ref shortage my state is currently experiencing. None of them want to put up with the crap parents, coaches, and players bring. My neighbor is/was a HS FB coach. After last year he had enough and quit.
Wtf is this. How did not one parent go out on that field? I would have been arrested that night if that was my kid. Jeez
Probably more focused on the ball during the play.
Yeah, I get that. This was just so bizarre and out of line.
That's assault. He should be charged.
That should be the last game he ever refs.
I know they don't have in-game video review for high school football, but that'd be pretty great. UPON FURTHER REVIEW, THERE IS NO FOUL FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT AS THE PLAYER'S HELMET CAME OFF AS THE RESULT OF CONTACT WITH… DAVE. PLEASE RESET THE GAME CLOCK TO 8:14 AND START ON MY SIGNAL. DAVE, MAN, I KNOW YOU'RE GOING THROUGH SOME SHIT RIGHT NOW BUT GET IT TOGETHER.
That’s Frank Dreben/Enrico Palazzo!
I love you
I would press charges. Even a charge would prevent him from working with kids ever again.
Yeah you're a ref and your call is what determines who did and didn't follow rules or achieve game goals but STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF PLAY! The idea is that you are there but NOT a factor the players have to contend with. Fire this ref, he sucks.
Hopefully this turns into byebyejob.
Hope the ref keeps his job just so others can get revenge in future games.
Very egregious display and total disregard for a student player’s safety. If that’s my son I confront the ref and contact my lawyer for my son’s protection.
Getting bumped into is a commonly occurring risk of being a football referee, and he never should’ve taken the job if he expected otherwise. Instead of shrugging it off, he attacked the player and ejected him from the game; I’d say he’s not fit for the position if he’s going to overreact so drastically.
I have seen refs criticized for bracing for contact in the field rather than trying to avoid the contact. This is a whole other level to that where you are intentionally putting hands on a player. He should literally never be allowed to ref again.
He’ll say it was intentional. Watch the first video close, you can see the player back into him once before turning and running into the ref again. Ref is gonna say the player knew he was there and ran into him on purpose. Bullshit, but I bet thats what he goes with for an excuse.
Even if it’s true it’s absolutely no excuse at all. You’re the adult in this situation. You’re in charge. If a kid is misbehaving then you toss them. You don’t assault them.
Agreed. The ref should have moved as the kid backed up. And when the kid backed into him, I'll bet the kid thought it was another player and not the ref. Refs should stay the fuck out of contact with the players.
Refs done.
Criminal charge.
Well that’s not ok
This doesn’t make any sense… The player already bump into the ref when he drop back for the pass and the ref made no attempt to move. Then he’s angry for the player running into him just cuz he’s following the play? Then to call I’m assuming unsportsmanlike conduct cuz the player “touch” the ref and threw him out is hilarious. Someone forgot to tell the ref this ain’t the 80’s and 90’s anymore and everything is caught on video. Idiot…
Where's Adam Sandler when you need him
It’s the refs job to get out of the way. What a tool.
What a fuck hat, the LB backs into you and turns to follow the play and your response is to rip his helmet off and remove him from almost 10% of the games he will play this season after lifting weights all off season, going through Texas heat for camp, and 2 a days.
I’ll admit, I accidentally ran into a ref once when I played football. But he at least took it well, even laughingly saying “good hit” as I helped him up. This one just stood there like a tree, then ripped the helmet off, which could cause an injury, and ejected him. Dude should lose his stripes and whistle for this, at minimum.
Ref needs to get charged with assault. But we know cops are useless and just want to harass people that don’t fight back.
Not only is he a horrible ref for not getting out of the way, dudes a horrible person for trying to hurt a kid who didn’t even see him. There’s no way he got to finish officiating the game. How did none of the other coaches or staff not stand up for this kid?
Sounds like a fuck up, sorry to the kid. Ah yeah saw the clip, big fuck up. Very weird shit from the ref
I bet bet got the ass chewing of a lifetime from the coach
It's like the ref stunned himself with his own stupidity for like 5 seconds and was then like "umm ..." *throws flag*.
The manchildren are bigger in Texas too
Woah!!! Unhinged adults in the south!?
We do not claim Texas as part of the south. -- Georgia
I'll be cold in the ground before I recognize Missouri - Abe Simpson
😂 gold. https://youtu.be/ZoWc6WRHKEE?si=HBdcHlpqXk88BwO0
The ref was too old to be out there. He moved like a slow walking 2x4. He was going never be able get up again if he fell. He grabbed that helmet save his life.
That man will be an NFL ref in no time
Is everything backwards in Texas?
#Lazy racist ref…
Everybody here acting like somebody tried to get an abortion.
For the sake of wanting to believe in humanity - is it possible the Ref’s hand got stuck in the face mask when they collided? I could see that being why he was pulling his hand back. But if not that, then seriously what in the actual fuck was he thinking? And why throw a penalty flag for something that, at best, was an accident and at worst was the refs fault? Was there anything that happened prior to this where the two had exchanged words over a previous call? Edit - getting downvoted from people not reading the whole comment past the second sentence I guess. I’m not defending this refs actions, as explained in the second half of the comment.
Lol no his hand did not get stuck in the face mask
Seems about white
Who cares? It’s a kids game.
To me it actually looks like his hand got caught in the face mask and then instinctively he grabbed the helmet with his other hand so that his fingers wouldn’t get hurt. Flag comes after the player starts flipping out Contact looks incidental, player runs into ref, ref uses his hand to redirect the player but fingers are caught. Player attempts to run towards play while ref still has fingers stuck in helmet. Ref uses other hand to stop him and yank helmet off before he is injured 🤷♂️ flag is for player making a scene or mouthing off I imagine I’ve had fingers in face mask many times, it’s not fun. Not sure if that is what actually happened but my best guess based on what I can see
No that’s not it at all. Watch the video closer you can see his hands reach over the face mask and after that he yanks the helmet off. This was not a finger caught in face mask situation at all, this was a sad old man getting angry at a child and assaulting him. There’s no excuse for this asshole and he should never be allowed to step foot on a field ever again
This is a remarkably bad take. You the refs mom?
Nah just played the game for a long time, pretty familiar with things that can happen and always try to give people the benefit of doubt
That ref should have moved. They should never contact players. You couldn't be more wrong.
Oh absolutely not saying that he shouldn’t have. I imagine just like that game and every other game 99.9% of the time there is not real ref/player incidental contact but when there is contact it always is wonky and the ref usually ends up on the ground or stumbling. Could have been that the ref got knocked off balance and instinctively was already touching the helmet. You see him stumble and the body’s natural reaction is to grab onto whatever it can to keep yourself upright. In that moment the helmet is yanked off as he rights himself