After a few weeks of finger-pointing and outrage, we finally have the complete story surrounding the two Jay High School defensive players who’ve been banished for targeting a referee during the game.
Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas, the Jay high school football players who delivered cheap shots in the middle of a game, accused a coach of ordering them to hit the referee over racist comments.
According to Outside The Lines, the team’s defensive backs coach, Mack Breed, “directed the players to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls.”
In a letter detailing his interactions with the head coach after the game, 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.”
On Wednesday, 15-year-old John Jay sophomore Victor Rojas and 17-year-old senior Michael Moreno each will attend disciplinary hearings.
On Sept. 4, Rojas and Moreno blindsided official Robert Watts late in the fourth quarter of a game in Marble Falls, Texas, on a deliberate tackle from behind — captured on video — that has now been seen on YouTube by more than 11 million people.
The question now is, who’s more at fault: the coach or the players?
A lot of people are going to blame the players for such a vile act, while most people figure to point blame at the adult.
I lay equal blame to both parties. As a coach, you have to understand the power you yield, and I’m sure Mack gave the order knowing his players, both defensive backs, would run through a wall for him.
Mack’s impulsive reaction to the slurs could ruin the two players' lives, with both unlikely to play football in again in high school or the next level.
As players, regardless of age, you have to think clearly and for yourself at times. As players we are taught to listen to our coaches, but at some point common sense has to kick for you.
Targeting and spearing a ref is wrong, and can ruin your reputation forever. Nobody would have faulted either player for telling the coach "no." That’s not how we do things.
Mack Breed let his players down, and missed out on a great teaching opportunity. The two players, let themselves and their families down, but do deserve a second chance considering the information coming out.
By Glenn Erby
