The kids had headgear and a cap, but the ref ruled that the cap wasn’t good enough.
The ref is a racist dick.
The kid cut his hair voluntarily and won the match, and the ref has been suspended pending review. Hopefully he loses guys job, and faces a lawsuit for violating the kid’s civil rights.
I applaud the kid for denying the dickhead any power over him though.
As a guy who has reffed a number of high school sports over the years and who has had to make kids change clothes, remove jewelry, and change shoes before they can play, my first instinct was to give the ref the benefit of the doubt. And as an guy who wrestled back in high school (this was during the McKinley administration), I remember that the rules about long hair, long finger nails, jewelry, and uniforms are pretty strict because during a match, pretty much everything will get grabbed and pulled.
But then there was this line from the article:
The referee was identified in news reports as Alan Maloney, who drew news media coverage in 2016 after a dispute with a black referee. The referee said at the time that Maloney, who is white, called him the n word during an argument, an accusation which Maloney said he did not remember, but did not dispute, according to the South Jersey newspaper the Courier-Post.
Nope. Fuck that guy.
Frankel, the reporter who captured the hair cut on camera, was criticized for his framing of the incident.
He had described Johnson as the “epitome of a team player,” setting up the story as one of a generous player making a sacrifice for his team. He later apologized because, he wrote, he had “missed the bigger picture.”
Forgot to emphasis this, this reporter at least relatively quickly realized he was wrong about suggesting this has anything to do with a player sacrificing for his team. This was racism. Plain and simple. It seems doubtful they’ll do much since I think they mentioned he might of read the rules correctly or something.
However, he never had an issue in any other match officiated by any other ref. Not a single other ref saw it as a problem. Scumbag white dude trying to stick it to black kid with really nice dreadlocks. I’m sure it took years to get his dreads to that point too.
At any rate, the rules specifically stated the special cap was fine for lengthier hair. The ref decided to ignore that codified rule.
It’s a start.
It looks like the school district is ready to take a stand but not the group that provides the rules and the referees; I think they’re the same.
“Regulations regarding hair length and legal hair covers for wrestlers are provided by the National Federation of State High School Associations,” a statement from the organization reads. “At this point NJSIAA is working to determine the exact nature of the incident.”
What’s extremely frustrating about this is it’s a room full of adults, a lot of people watching, and they still let it happen in the first place. He still had to go through that.
I know, where was his coach?
It’s hard to argue with the ref. Even bad calls are final until much much later.
This isn’t just a bad call; it’s racism.
I don’t know what his coach did. However, it seems like it was an opportunity to step up and adult. Say, “Nope, we’d rather lose this meet than have this child cut his hair for you.” There are things more important than winning a high school meet and the coach should have made that clear to his/her athletes.
And if the kid wanted to play, no matter what?
He’s a child. As mentioned above, sometimes the adults have to do the adulting. What happened, should not have happened. And there was ample opportunity to do that here. Someone knew it was wrong enough to record pretty much the whole dang thing.
Every adult in that place should have stood up to that ref. And if he did not back down, leave with their kids and their teams in tow.
That’s sports. The Ref makes the final call. The kid wanted to wrestle. I don’t know if it was the right call, but he elected to wrestle and win.
After the fact, there will be consequences, but until then, I am not sure there was a right or wrong call when it comes to the actions of the kid or the coach. You just don’t have a lot of options.
After the fact, there is a lot you can do though, and should. Action is being taken. It’s a pretty big deal, but what you suggest would have not helped the situation.
Yes you do. There area always options. If everyone leaves, that’s the end of it. It’s called taking a stand, and every adult in that place had a chance to do it; they failed.
You must see a lot of failures in life then.
People are there to see there kids, and that’s it. No one pays attention to the other stuff.
And that’s assuming that any knew what rules were.
Yeah. Shocking right? We’re talking about Black Lives Matter in 2018, how many decades after Civil Rights? I promise you I am not the only one who sees a fair amount of failure.
And don’t tell me no one pays attention in sports. We have a pro-athlete who took a stand, and it cost him everything.
It’s high school wrestling, not Texas Football. People aren’t.
Some, maybe even most people aren’t, but some are paying attention. And you know how I know that. We’re talking about this due to footage taken by a person who gave a shit.
I’m not sure if it’s better to sit in the back of the bus or to refuse to do that.
No, I guess I am sure after all. If the game is rigged, don’t play the game. Protest the game until the rigging is fixed.
Neither of you have been high school althletes of any skill, I take it?
Racism in sports is no new phenomenon, and yet we still have black althetes that participate because people in the US only care about winning. Winning gets you a platform. If the kid had refused to participate, I doubt it would make waves as much as it did.