Padecky: Redwood Empire coaches find attack on ref obscene

The words were different but the meaning was consistent.

“Made me sick to my stomach,” said Trent Herzog, Casa Grande’s football coach. “I’m blown away that it happened.”

“I was disgusted when I saw that,” said Rick Krist, Petaluma’s coach. “It was horrifying. Devastating.”

“Those two kids should never play another down of football,” said Steve Ellison, Petaluma’s longtime coach, now retired. “It was brutal. It was flagrant. He could have been killed.”

“I would never tell a kid to hit a referee,” said Ed Conroy, Rancho Cotate’s coach. “Hopefully those kids will be arrested for assault.”

Last Friday, in a Texas high school football game, an official, Robert Watts, was attacked during a play. It’s the only verb appropriate to the act. While Watts was facing the line of scrimmage, two defensive backs from John Jay High School blindsided Watts. On video, with a defensive back sprinting from?6 yards away, Watts was hit so hard from behind, his head snapped as he crumpled to the ground. That was followed by the second player diving on top of Watts, leading with his helmet.

I’ve covered football since 1964. I have never seen an action so flagrant, so disturbing, so criminal, so obscene. Yes, obscene. Watts had nothing to protect himself except for human decency and common sense. That Watts wasn’t given those considerations is an opinion without rebuttal. What is left for discussion, however, is the aftermath.

For example, a Texas high school administrator considered those actions “a teachable moment.” It’s a phrase often used in education and at home.

“That is not a teachable moment,” Herzog said. “I mean, if THAT is a teachable moment, I want to know what isn’t.”

“It should be an endable moment,” Conroy said.

No football coach I’ve ever met, be they Pop Warner, high school, college or NFL, has gathered his team before the season and said, “I’m here to remind you that you’re not allowed to take a 6-yard running sprint and hit a game official in the back.”

Last Friday, Krist watched uncomfortably as two of his players were flagged with personal fouls in a game against Vintage. They were of the common variety, retaliating with a swing after the first swing. Nonetheless, Krist spoke with the two players, telling them to apologize to their Trojan teammates. And then Krist brought up the story that has spread like wildfire on social media.

“Look at what happened in Texas,” Krist told his kids. “One guy can affect us all.”

So many teenagers have a wonderful view of the world. The view extends all the way out to the end of their nose. Doesn’t make them wrong. Doesn’t make them right. Makes them teenagers. It’s up to their parents and their coaches to see beyond that.

“John Jay High School will have to live forever with what happened,” Krist said. “People will never forget what happened.

“As a coach, my biggest nightmare is having one of my kids suffering a serious injury. What happened in Texas, that’s my second-biggest nightmare.”

The two John Jay players are pointing fingers, of course. It’s a time-honored tradition in sports. They allege the official issued racial taunts. Does that warrant aggravated assault? Of course not. They said an assistant coach told the players Watts needed “to pay” for bad calls against John Jay. So they were doing what they were told. Good soldiers. Right?

“If that happened on my team,” Krist said, “I would expect my player to tell the coach, ‘That’s not right, coach. We can’t do that.’?”

Seems logical, reasonable. Then again, this happened in Texas, where high school football closes towns on Friday nights, where high school stadiums seat 18,000 (Allen Eagle Stadium, Allen, Texas) and cost $59.6 million to build. To begin to understand Texas football and the fever it arouses, catch a television episode of “Friday Night Tykes.” Remember, as you watch, it’s 8- and 9-year-old kids on the receiving end of the verbal assaults.

In this video era, where sound bites can collapse a reputation if the very filmed image doesn’t do it by itself, coaches and kids of all sports need to remember they are always on display. There’s no hiding anymore. The camera doesn’t blink. The mute never seems to be on with an audio.

That’s why Krist spends time three to four times a week addressing his team on conduct. Play aggressive. Play emotional. But play under control. Before every game the Trojans play, and at halftime of every game, Krist repeats himself. And he never gets bored with it.

“You can’t expect to say it once,” Krist said. “It’s like running a play over and over in the film room. You keep doing it, you keep saying it. You can’t say it enough.”

Why? Imagine those two Texas kids. Imagine the tattoo they are wearing. Whether anyone can see the words - “Criminal” - they see it. They feel it.

“It’s going take a strong person,” Krist said, “to get these kids through the healing process.”

That raises a troubling point. What if they don’t get it? What if they refuse to be held accountable and instead blame a coach? Or a dysfunctional home life? Or, heck, it was just the heat of the moment and don’t you know I’m not really like that?

Whether this can be a teachable moment, it can be a moment of awareness, one that shouldn’t be confined to football-mad Texas.

“I hope this makes every coach everywhere look inside themselves,” Krist said. “How can I do a better job? I ask myself that all the time. Before every game I go to the referee and tell him if he is having any problems with any of my players that he should talk to me.

“One thing I talk about with my kids all the time: Don’t leave the field with regrets. That doesn’t refer to just how you play. It’s how you act,” Krist said.

From more than a thousand miles away, Krist has felt the impact. He has put himself in the shoes of John Jay’s head coach.

“It’s going to be very hard on that head coach in the coming days,” Krist said. “The head coach is responsible for everything on his team. ... I don’t think I could ever coach again.”

The guilt, the embarrassment, the offering of a reason that would only be seen as an excuse, all of that would sit like a lump in his throat. It would be hard, impossible even, for Krist to swallow. In the days ahead, we’ll be watching to see if certain people in Texas also feel the same constriction.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.