Two defensive backs from John Jay High School's football team are suspended — and could face criminal charges — after they teamed up to blindside a referee at the end of a football game in central Texas this weekend.
The two players were suspended from both the school and the football team after they converged on a back judge near the end of Friday night's game, in an act that was evidently inspired by feelings that the official had made a bad call. The local police department says it's investigating.
Nearly 7 million people have viewed video of the incident, which shows one player sprinting toward and knocking the back judge to the ground – followed closely by the other player, who leveled his helmet as he struck the fallen man.
The incident took place during a game at Marble Falls High School, northwest of Austin; the players under scrutiny are from John Jay High, in San Antonio's large Northside Independent School District.
The Marble Falls Police Department says it is conducting an investigation that includes review of several video recordings of the incident. The agency adds, "No arrests have been made at this time. An update will be released within the week."
"It is not the good sportsmanlike behavior that we teach students," the chief spokesman for Northside ISD, Pascual Gonzalez, tells local TV news KSAT. He added, "Northside ISD will not tolerate this kind of behavior."
Wayne Elliott, the secretary of the Austin Football Officials Association, tells the AP, "The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again."
Elliott did not release the referee's name.
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
