The principal of John Jay High School is saying that the Texas school's secondary football coach, Mack Breed, acknowledged that he was the one behind a players-on-referee attack as revenge for the referee's alleged racist comments, the New York Daily News reports.
Breed reportedly confessed to Principal Robert Harris that he instructed two of the players to tackle the referee in the middle of a game, Harris wrote in a letter.
The two teen players, 15-year-old Victor Rojas and 17-year-old Michael Moreno, did say that their coach told them to rush Robert Watts, the referee in question. Breed allegedly told the students, "You need to hit him," after Watts allegedly called a black student the n-word and told a Hispanic student to "speak English."
Watts' attorney has dismissed all claims that the San Antonio referee ever made those comments.
Victor and Michael have been assigned to alternative schools and prohibited from watching John Jay games. They were due to attend disciplinary hearings Wednesday. The two have apologized to Watts. If found guilty, the two teens could be expelled or permanently assigned to an alternative school, among other punishments. Michael called the tackle "one of my biggest regrets," according to the Daily News.
"Everyone sees me as this thug or gangster, [that] I did this because I'm a bad guy. That's not who I am," the teen said. "Underneath the helmet and the pads, I'm really a great kid."
Breed is currently on administrative leave and is due at his own hearing Thursday with the University Interscholastic League governing body.
Read more at the New York Daily News.