‘UNSPORTSMANLIKE PLAY’

Season-Ending High School Football Injury Sparks Probe Into Racism on the Field

A star running back who suffered a brutal on-field injury has reportedly alleged that a rival player twisted his ankle before shouting “racial things in his face.”

A high-school football game in Pennsylvania ended on a grim note this weekend after a star running back was left with a debilitating ankle injury—an injury that reports now say may have been the intended consequence of a racist attack on the field. Local news station KDKA reports that the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League is investigating the game between the Steel Valley and South Side Area football teams last Friday. Steel Valley running back Nijhay Burt has been sidelined for the rest of the playoff season after suffering a broken ankle during the game, and his father claims it was no accident. “He says while he was on the ground, someone was twisting his ankle and after they were twisting at his ankle, they stood up saying racial things in his face,” his father, Delorean Parms, told KDKA. School officials in both districts are now looking into the allegation, as well as other reports of racial slurs being used on the field by coaches, players, and referees alike. Steel Valley has already conducted its own investigation into “racial bigotry and unsportsmanlike play,” and South Side Area officials have hired an outside firm to conduct a probe into “all aspects of the game.”