Good Morning America scored an exclusive interview with Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas, the two Texas high school football players who targeted a defenseless referee during a game. The video, which many of you have seen, has caused quite an uproar around the country. You see, not only was the attack premeditated, but rumors were flying that an assistant coach told the players to do it. A “Code Red,” if you will. There were also allegations of racial slurs hurled by the ref to players during the game. Something the ref has vehemently denied.
On Friday morning, George Stephanopoulos asked the players point blank: “Your coach told you to do it?”
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.'”
Stephanopoulos wisely followed up and asked Moreno why the coach (identified in the picture above by GMA) told them to do it.
Moreno: “For everything that’s going on in the game, there were racial slurs being thrown from this referee, unjustified calls, you know. There was a lot going on.”
So, it’s pretty clear after watching the video that both boys, more so Moreno, were probably coached to say certain things and, above all, place the blame squarely on the assistant coach; “The adult and guardian” who ordered them do it.
Both players’ recollection of the events leading up to the play seem shaky. Were they told directly by this man or was this second-hand information? As for the racial slurs from the ref, Rojas seemed confident saying, “He told one of my Hispanic friends to ‘speak English, this is America.’ And he told an African-American on our team, he told them the n-word.”
Rojas and Moreno were suspended three days by the school, placed in alternative education for a week, and banned from playing football for the rest of the year. They are waiting to hear from local prosecutors about possible charges.
[GMA]
