High School Football Players Who ‘Blindsided’ Referee Say He Made Racist Remarks

On a high school football field in Texas, one player made a beeline for a referee, slamming into him from behind and knocking him down.

A second player followed up, appearing to dive into the man’s back as he was on the ground.

“They just brutally blindsided him,” said Alan Goldberger, the lawyer for the game official, Robert Watts. “He never saw it coming, obviously.”

By Wednesday morning, video from Friday’s game between John Jay and Marble Falls high schools had been viewed more than nine million times.

The two players accused of the hit are from John Jay High School in San Antonio. They charge that Mr. Watts made racial slurs directed at them, said Pascual Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Northside Independent School District, during a news conference on Tuesday.

“Those allegations are untrue,” Mr. Goldberger said. “It’s unfortunate.”

Mr. Watts, who has been officiating for 14 years, is “under medical care,” Mr. Goldberger said, though he could not elaborate at the time on the severity of his injuries.

The students are suspended from both the football team and from attending school pending a disciplinary hearing, said Brian T. Woods, the district superintendent. The Marble Falls Police Department is also investigating the incident, ESPN reported.

The players also maintain that their assistant coach encouraged retaliation, saying something like “ ‘that guy needs to pay for cheating us,’ ” Mr. Gonzalez said in the news conference.

The assistant coach has been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement from the University Interscholastic League, which oversees extracurricular programs in Texas and held a hearing on the incident on Wednesday.

The hit was executed during the final play of a game that John Jay lost, 15-9, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

In addition to the two players involved in the hit, two others were ejected from the game for throwing punches at players from the other team, according to The Express-News, and one of those players has scholarship offers from “premier college football programs.”

At the hearing on Wednesday, league officials encouraged the district to examine the culture of the school’s football program.

“There were multiple ejections, punches thrown throughout the game, trash-talking and unsportsmanlike conduct,” said Gil Garza, a member of the league’s state executive committee. He added that the players also clenched their fists as they lined up to shake hands with members of the opposing team after the game.

“I didn’t see any leadership coming from the coaching staff,” Mr. Garza added.

The school district is also investigating the players’ allegations.

Michael Fitch, executive director of the Texas Association of Sport Officials, said the allegations of racial slurs being used by officials in the game would be investigated by his organization as well.

“As of this point we do not have an official complaint,” Mr. Fitch said.