Quote:According to the assailants, one of their coaches pulled them aside and told them to hit the ref.


"Ordered them to paralyze" was a mistatement on my part, but watching the video of the hits, as they drive their helmets into the ref's spine, assuming that they intended to cause severe bodily harm is not a long jump to make.

I think it is a pretty big jump to make. I just prefer to deal with the facts at hand and not exaggerate what actually happened.


Sounds to me coach told them to hurt the ref (big difference) and the kids did as they were told. I put more blame on the coach than the kids. Not that the 17 year olds are blameless, but they are being told to do something by someone they most likely look up to. Its not an excuse and another team member did not do it, but its sucks the coach would put those kids in that situation. If they didn't hurt him they probably would have been punished by the coach.

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