MARBLE FALLS, Texas -- The football official knocked to the ground during a game in Marble Falls on Friday night is breaking his silence.
"I like to keep my officiating quiet; unfortunately this will be big news," he said to TexasHSFootball.com. "Libel and slander have already been committed against me. I will be contacting the appropriate people soon and any statement from me will come at a later date."
The official asked the website not to use his name. KVUE's partners at the Austin American-Statesman have identified him as Robert Watts.
"These types of actions against any game official at any level are inexcusable," said Jim Quick, executive director of the NFL Referee Association. "We fully support the suspensions of the players involved, along with a full and complete investigation by the Texas University Interscholastic League."
The viral hit by the two players was recorded from several angles. In the video, a John Jay High School player wearing number 12 runs directly at an official during a play that occurred with about one minute left in the game. The player starts from the John Jay five yard line and ran about seven yards before running through the official who was standing in the middle of the field with his back to the player.
Immediately after that, another John Jay player could be seen leading with helmet as he dove on the official who was then on the ground.
The first player to hit the official in the game was ejected, according to the Northside Independent School District.
The referee, who is from Austin, is "wanting to press charges" in regard to the incident, according to ESPN.com.
"The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again," Wayne Elliott of the Austin Football Officials Association said.
Both players involved in the incident have since been suspended from the team and the school pending the results of an investigation by the NISD.
According to KVUE's sister station KENS5 in San Antonio, the ejections were part of a total of four ejections of John Jay players during the game against Marble Falls.
Northside Independent athletic director Stan Lang told KENS5 that the type of behavior in the video "would never be condoned." However, Lang said it was important to get all sides of the story to find the right resolution.
"We have to be very careful with what we say until we get the entire story," Lang told KENS5. "It's really unfortunate. We're still getting stories on different things. That's why we've got to make sure to get the entire story before we basically share it with everybody, because we don't want anything out there to be assumed. We want to be very clear on exactly what happened. We'll just have to go through the whole investigation and let all that come out."
Marble Falls police said it is conducting an investigation of the incident, but that "no arrests have been made at this time." Police said an update on the case would be released this week.
