There’s yet another wrinkle in that crazy player-ref attack from Texas in early September. If you recall, Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas went on national TV and told George Stephanopoulos that an assistant coach told them to do it, he told them to perform the “Code Red.” Stephanopoulos briefly put his reporter hat on and followed up with more questions, several of which the teens didn’t look comfortable answering. Above all, the boys put the blame squarely on John Jay assistant coach Mack Breed.
Victor Rojas: “I was doing what I was told. A player came over and told me the coach said, ‘Do it.’ ”
Michael Moreno: “A coach pulled me and another player aside and said, and I quote, ‘You need to hit him. You need to hit the ref. He needs to pay the price.’ ”
ESPN’s Outside the Lines did some digging into the story and learned that Breed admitted his wrongdoing to the school, saying he “directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls.” He also added that he “should have handled the referee himself.”
The accusations against referee Robert Watts are fairly serious. According to one witness and four players on the John Jay football team, Watts used the N-word on two separate occasions and made a slur against Hispanics. He of course has denied the whole thing.
Meanwhile, coach Mack Breed will meet with the governing body of Texas High School athletics where they will ultimately decide his fate.
Outside looking in, Breed shouldn’t be in charge of kids, especially impressionable ones on a football team. That much seems obvious.
(Via ESPN)
