The Associated Press reported Monday night that the commissioner of the Southern California Football Association suspended Mt. San Antonio (California) College offensive lineman Bernard Schirmer for five years.
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Ventura College quarterback Jake Luton called Schirmer’s punch “terrible” and said, “There’s no place for that in football”. One of the game’s officials got into the middle of the scuffle and began guiding Mt. San Antonio lineman Bernard Schirmer back to his side of the field, police said. The Schirmer family hoped the felony battery charge would be dropped, and Mt. SAC released a statement saying it agreed that the hit was an accident.
According to the police report, the official was “punched in the head” and was “knocked unconscious”.
Cops cuffed a college football player on suspicion of battery in California after the student-athlete punched a referee during a third-quarter spat Saturday.
Schirmer, who stands 6-foot-6 (2 meters) and weighs 275 pounds (122 kilograms), said he was having words with a defensive end who had pushed him.
“When he fell down, I thought somebody else hit him”, Schirmer said. He was released Sunday on $20,000 bail.
Referees and officials are supposed to be untouchable in sports.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to charge Schirmer. “I really didn’t mean to do that to the ref”.
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The school said it will continue an assessment of his conduct to determine what sanctions, if any, are appropriate.
