Referees Arrested In Middle Of Football Game

That is referees with an "s," two of 'em. The two refs, who were officiating the Mandeville-St. Paul's (high school) game last night in Louisiana, were arrested on public intimidation charges after allegedly threatening police officers in charge of crowd control.

One report says the incident began when the refs got into it with " vocal members" of the St. Paul chain crew. Things then escalated when one of the referees began arguing with a Covington police officer about crowd control.

"Well, a referee asked a police officer to move some people back. The police officer moved them back. Another referee came up to the police officer and told him, 'that's not far enough.' The police officer explained....would you please handle the game, referee the game, and we will handle the crowd for you. The second referee told the police officer, nose-to-nose with the police officer, 'you're out of the game...get outta here.' And the police officer said, 'excuse me sir, just referee the game, and we'll handle the crowd.' And he says 'no, get out. Get out now.'

Such a polite police officer. Unfortunately, the officer's patience ran thin—apparently at the use of some "magic" words—and both referees were arrested on the spot, in the middle of the third quarter and escorted off the field into squad cars. All told, it caused a 25-minute delay in the game.

Police: Two referees arrested at Mandeville-St. Paul's game [WWLTV]

2 referees arrested at Covington prep football game [WWL]