Football Players Who Blindsided Ref Say They Were Following Coach's Orders

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18. UPDATE: Coach Changes Story

Guardian.com: An assistant football coach at a Texas high school told his school principal that he did order two young players to hit a referee to the ground – but only in anger at the official’s racist remarks.

According to a sideline source and the accounts provided to Outside the Lines of four John Jay players, Watts, the referee, used the n-word twice during the game, once before and once after the infamous hits, and also used language offensive to Latino students...

In a letter detailing his interactions with the head coach after the game, and seen by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, John Jay high school principal Robert Harris says the team’s secondary coach, Mack Breed, admitted he “directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls...

“I later met with Coach Breed at John Jay High School ... in my office in the presence of Coach Gutierrez,” Harris wrote. “Coach Breed told me that he directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls. He wanted to take full responsibility for his actions. Mr Breed at one point during our conversation stated that he should have handled the referee himself.”

Breed is black. Watts is white. Moreno and Rojas are both Latino. Breed has declined to comment publicly about what he told his players.

Bree and Watts: out of scholastic sports permanently. Moreno and Rojas: no more football for the rest of the season.


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