We’ve seen a lot of examples lately of the mistreatment of referees during football games, but it sounds like there was a prominent example of an official misbehaving on Saturday.
Top junior college program East Mississippi — the same juco where current Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly attended — faced Itawamba and was beating them pretty badly when things got weird.
East Mississippi coach Buddy Stephens apparently was not happy with the officiating and was punched by a referee, who was ejected by a school administrator. Reporter Brandon Shields provided the details on the story:
Buddy Stephens is not happy at the moment at refs
— Brandon Shields (@bshields0244) September 26, 2015
One of the referees just got escorted out of the stadium
— Brandon Shields (@bshields0244) September 26, 2015
The official who punched Stephens was ejected by an administrator, according to Shields. Stephens was also tossed for his role.
EMCC coach Buddy Stephens has been ejected
— Brandon Shields (@bshields0244) September 26, 2015
So EMCC coach Buddy Stephens and a referee went back and forth jawing at each other and both got ejected
— Brandon Shields (@bshields0244) September 26, 2015
Referee punched EMCC coach Buddy Stephens and was ejected.. Stephens was ejected for trying to fight back
— Brandon Shields (@bshields0244) September 26, 2015
As you could imagine after a display like that from their coaches, EMCC’s players weren’t exactly the most disciplined, and two were later ejected for fighting.
So in high school football we have coaches telling players to take out the referees, and in juco ball we have a referee taking out a coach. Things are really getting wild.
