This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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.

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.”



Texas high school football players who tackled referee blame coach Read more

On 4 September, in a game between John Jay and Marble Falls, Victor Rojas and Michael Moreno blindsided official Robert Watts late in the fourth quarter, and deliberately took him to the ground. The YouTube video of the footage has now been seen by more than 11 million people.

The pair were suspended by the school, and publicly apologised for what Moreno called “one of my biggest regrets”. “I’m ready to face my consequences,” he said. “I am greatly sorry for this and I regret it greatly. I hope people can change their minds about us and the consequences.”

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.

On Good Morning America last week, Rojas also said he heard Watts call a black student the n-word and claimed he had said to a Spanish student: “Speak English. This is America.”

Watts has declined to comment, but his attorney, Alan Goldberger, said Watts denies using racist remarks of any kind. Goldberger said the kids were “flat out lying”.

On Wednesday, 15-year-old John Jay sophomore Rojas and 17-year-old senior Moreno each will attend disciplinary hearings.

The letter from Harris gives a flavour of some of the evidence the hearing officer will consider when handing down a punishment to Rojas and Moreno.

“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.

Wednesday’s hearings for Moreno and Rojas will be held at the Northside Independent School District headquarters in San Antonio.

“If found guilty of violating the Student Code of Conduct, the range of consequences could range from assignment to alternative school to expulsion,” a school district spokesperson said.