{"id":877892,"date":"2026-10-10T22:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877892\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T22:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:06:23","slug":"high-school-football-referee-suspended-for-grabbing-a-player-and-acting-like-a-buffoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877892\/","title":{"rendered":"High school football referee suspended for grabbing a player and acting like a buffoon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here we are \u2014 Week 8 of the high school football season in the books. Hard to believe, right?<\/p>\n

One day you wake up and you’re getting ready for Kickoff Classics in August, and then you blink and the playoffs are a month away.<\/p>\n

Time flies when you’re having fun!<\/p>\n

FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME ERUPTS INTO VIOLENT BRAWL INVOLVING PLAYERS, COACHES AFTER FINAL WHISTLE<\/a><\/p>\n

Or, in one referee’s case … when you’re putting your hands on a player and then getting suspended by the district for acting like a complete buffoon for no reason whatsoever!<\/p>\n

Either-or.<\/p>\n

\"Kickapoo <\/p>\n

The Kickapoo Chiefs host the Glendale Falcons in Springfield on Sept. 26, 2024. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

I’ve taken it upon myself here at OutKick to highlight at least one high school football play\/ player\/ story each and every Saturday during the season. These guys are all about to be millionaires with the silly NIL rules,<\/a> so we might as well get ahead of the curve and start identifying them early.<\/p>\n

BEHEMOTH HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STAR SLAMS DEFENDER TO THE GROUND LIKE A RAGDOLL AFTER INTERCEPTION<\/a><\/p>\n

So far this season, we’ve seen (arguably) the country’s top running back do incredible things in Tennessee <\/a>on multiple different occasions, a wild Hail Mary in Florida<\/a>, an entire California team get suspended because the mascot shot the bird to some fans, and a giant running back in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

What a run we’ve been on, and I can assure you, it won’t end today … unfortunately.<\/p>\n

Take a look:<\/p>\n

The school district didn’t take long to suspend this ref<\/p>\n

Goodness gracious. I’ve covered a lot of high school football over the years. It’s all I did from about 2015-2021. I can safely say that I have never, in my life, seen that.<\/p>\n

The player in the video is Joelle Rover \u2014 a receiver for the Glendale Falcons, in Springfield, Missouri. To me, he looks like he did nothing wrong. At all. A nice catch-and-score for 43 yards, and a celebration with his teammates.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you can’t hear what he said, but boots on the ground don’t mention anything about a verbal interaction with the ref. Everyone is as confused as we are, including Glendale coach Frank Tristan.<\/p>\n

“I think it really tarnished the whole game with that,” he told the Springfield News-Leader.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ya think?!<\/p>\n

\"Glendale <\/p>\n

Glendale Falcons fans celebrate a touchdown against Kickapoo in Springfield on Sept. 26, 2024. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

The Missouri State High School Activities Association suspended the referee less than 24 hours later, which should also tell you something. They didn’t wait long to investigate or ask questions.<\/p>\n

It’s pretty clear what transpired from the video, and they didn’t need much else.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, this play was so blatant, and looked so bad, it caught the attention of former Heisman winner, Robert Griffin III on X.<\/p>\n

“This referee done lost his DAMN MIND PUTTING HIS HANDS ON A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER FOR NO REASON,” he posted Friday evening.<\/p>\n

Now, the question is … why? Why did this ref get so angry at this kid for scoring a touchdown and celebrating<\/a>? I have no clue. It’s a harmless touchdown celebration.<\/p>\n

THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW\u2013UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n

“He doesn’t need to be touching my player, you talk to me, that’s ridiculous,” Tristan can be seen yelling from the sidelines after the play. “You need to grow up.”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

Fairview High School remained undefeated with a 33-30 win over Pomona in Arvada, Colo., on Oct. 18, 2013. The Knights kicked a field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter. (Denver Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wild scene. Again, I’ve never seen anything like it. High school football never disappoints, folks. It’s undefeated. Every week, it gives us content \u2014 both good and bad.<\/p>\n

On that note, let’s end the day by highlighting Joelle Rover. The 6-3 senior finished last year with 11 touchdown passes and 1,017 yards, and currently has offers from Princeton, Western Illinois and Lindenwood, according to 247Sports.<\/p>\n

SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY OUTKICK NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n

He’s also a nightmare to try and take down.<\/p>\n

Good luck, fellas!<\/p>\n

Zach Dean is a writer for OutKick.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here we are \u2014 Week 8 of the high school football season in the books. Hard to believe,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[26584,140712,349,259870,99],"class_list":["post-877892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-high-school","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-nfl","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}