A highschool football player in Tennessee has-been suspended indefinitely after a accident with a referee throughout last Friday .’s game.
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“I had spoken to the player on the play before and he told me that I was in his way,” Gill said to The Gallatin News in a story published on Tuesday. The school system’s athletics committee will conduct its own investigation.
Assistant Executive Director of the TSSAA Matthew Gillespie believes there was no intent on Easley’s part to target the official.
“I think it is pretty conspicuous what went down”, he stated.
“No information we received before or after the play would give us any indication that this was malicious intent.”
TSSAA officials said they spoke with Glencliff administrators who described Easley as a “straight A” student and a leader at the school. “He didn’t realize the person he was running toward was an official” Wilson said in a statement.
“I asked him, ‘How long have you been playing football?’ ” Gill told the Nashville station. “He’s a good kid and a clean football player who had no intention of hitting Mr. Gill. Malcolm will not be suspended from play and will be on the field this Friday night”, said Wilson. He knows how serious that is and what it would mean for his future in football. He says because no one actually saw Easley colliding with him he was allowed to play for the remainder of the game. He hopes Mr. Gill will accept his honest apology.
Coach Brandon Easley told the Tennessean newspaper that his son would write a letter to the official because the hit could have been avoided.
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All this time, we were anxious about players getting concussions, apparently we have to worry about the refs getting them instead. If they thought it was malicious or anything they had the opportunity to eject and chose not to.
