Political activism in sports was unfortunately one of the biggest stories of 2020.
But no one was prepared for this.
And you won’t believe what happened after this football team protested the national anthem.
The Orange County Sheriff’s office in Florida is investigating a brawl that broke out after a high school football game between Wekiva and Mitchell.
Fans booed as Wekiva players knelt during the national anthem.
A Mitchell player reportedly waved a pro-police Blue Lives Matter flag.
The two teams fought after the game and charges of racial slurs flew.
“On the footage, you can see the referee trying to discipline that one [Mitchell] player who our players have told us is the one that [made racial slurs],” The Orlando Sun Sentinel reported.
“At no point did I see any adults hitting kids or doing anything other than breaking anything up.”
“I wasn’t a part of that brawl after that game, but [we] were called [N-word] and black boy the whole game,” Wekiva player Luther Johnson stated.
Unfortunately, another sad part of the Trump-era is the prevalence of hoax hate crimes.
Charges of racism against the Mitchell players could be another Jussie Smollett-style hoax.
Mitchell coach Andrew Schmitz blamed the Wekiva players saying “several of their kids came running across the field, and from there it was sort of a mass hysteria of us trying to get kids separated.”
Coach Schmitz stated that his players were a core of two-year starters and not once had anyone claimed they made racist remarks.
“The majority of my kids are two-year starters who have now played 23 games together, and at no point during any of those games has an opposing player or coach or referee warned us or said they’ve heard anything like that,” Schmitz explained. “I feel like if it would have been happening during the game, someone would have pushed somebody or gotten in somebody’s face about it, but there was none of that.”
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.