photo courtesy of ABC13
A Texas woman was caught on video earlier this month chasing down a 12-year-old boy for tackling her son during a youth football game.
The game was between the Southside Ravens and the North West Gorillas in the Houston area. On a clean tackle, the mom got angry after Ivan Flanagan tackled her son. She ran onto the field and chased after him.
Emilia Rucker, the mother of the boy who was chased, spoke to KKTV about the incident.
“This is ridiculous. How can you get that angry at a kid’s game?”
Rucker continued, “Your son plays football. They tackle each other. That’s just the name of the game. How can you get that upset to chase him and not only chase him but curse at him while you’re chasing him.”
Ivan also opened up about the ordeal, admitting that he was trying to help the other player up after the play before his mom ran onto the field.
“Yeah, I picked him up and everything,” he explained. “He was actually trying to shake my hand after the play until his mom, I guess, started chasing after me.”
Following the incident, the North West Gurillas released a statement on Facebook to address the situation. The woman and her kid were banned from future games and were fined for the mother’s conduct. The Gorillas posted an apology in regards to what happened.
“First and foremost, we would like to apologize to the parents of the young man that was unnecessarily chased across the field by a parent that was a part of our organization. In no way, shape or form is that okay, nor is it tolerated. We have since removed both parent and children from NWG as we don’t stand with putting nobody’s child in harm’s way,” The organization wrote.
“Yesterday was a highly emotional day as our parents felt their children were not safe due to the level of aggression displayed by players and opposing parents. To the families apart of our village, we apologize for placing you guys in unsafe conditions. We all know that little league football has long since steered from its sole purpose of being about the kids. However, our goal was to bring that back, and after yesterday I feel as though we did not show that. As we try our best to do our part to ensure that we provide a safe, fun and family-oriented environment for the children. Although we can not control anyone else’s actions/emotions, we want to take accountability for our behavior as a whole, what part it played and how it was displayed at yesterday’s event.” The Gorillas extended an apology, especially to Ivan, since he was the one who was most impacted, “Despite the behavior that was displayed by the opponent team, there was no reason that it escalated to that degree or manner. We are sincerely regretful on how this has affected everyone in and outside of our organization. We appreciate all of our dedicated parents who are continuously riding for us. Again, we want to apologize to the family and especially the young man deeply.”