Texas high school football official pulls off helmet, ejects player mid-game: Look
UPDATE (10/2/2023): The official who sparked outrage after video showed him forcefully pulling off a player's helmet during a play has been suspended pending an investigation, the UIL announced Monday. Read more here.
A video shared to social media late Friday night appears to show an official aggressively pull a player's helmet off after the two became tangled in the middle of a play during high school football game in Dallas, Texas.
Footage shows a Whitney (Texas) linebacker bumping into the umpire while backpedaling after the ball was snapped.
The official reacted by grabbing the player's helmet, removing it forcefully with two hands and throwing a flag in rapid succession.
The clips were first posted by Karla Haynes, the mother of the player involved, who said he was then ejected.
Trey Haynes, the son of Whitney head football coach and athletic director David Haynes Jr., is listed a 5-foot-11 and 225 pounds and appears to throw his arms up and look around in confusion after the play.
Karla Haynes' post read: "@uiltexas how is this allowed from a ref!!!!!!! And then you eject MY SON and you literally assaulted him!!!!!!!"
Whitney (5-0, 3-0) went on to beat Madison (2-4, 2-2) handily, 56-28, at Seagoville Stadium in Dallas.
The tweets showed two angles of the play from both sides of the field. Watch both angles here:
The video circulated quickly on social media late Friday night and drew widespread backlash that extended into Saturday.
The University Interscholastic League said it was aware of and looking into the incident on Saturday morning.
The identity of the official and any potential consequences are not immediately known.
Joey O'Hearn, a Whitney assistant coach, was among the many to weigh in on the footage on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Unfortunate that this happened tonight but proud of (Trey Haynes) for keeping his composure and walking away," O'Hearn said. "And congrats to these young men. Here in Whitney for being 5-0 on the season 3-0 in district!"
This story was updated Saturday morning with a statement from the UIL. This is still a developing story.
-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sblivetx
