Texas HS Football Coach Accused of Bribing Referee Denies Allegations

Calhoun Lavaca (TX) High School football coach Richard Whitaker is coming under fire for allegedly bribing a referee in a game against B.F. Terry. Calhoun ended up winning the game 43-20, but video of the alleged bribe made the rounds on social media this week and it’s what everyone is talking about.

 

Texas High School football, smh pic.twitter.com/QwKtkXmE6T

— Atlanta Sports Guy (@Atlantasportguy) October 20, 2015

According to Whitaker (via thebiglead.com), that wasn’t cash in his hand:

“Prior to the game Thursday night, there were poker chips laying on the field,” Whitaker said. “These poker chips, we found out later, were being used by one of the bands that uses the field. They use them as markers. Prior to the game, Terry football coach Tim Tekyl — he and I have been friends for many years, since the mid-90’s — he reaches down and picks up one of those chips, hands it to me, and says, ‘Put this in your pocket. It will bring you good luck tonight.’ This was all in good humor.”

“And so, after the game, again all in good humor, I reached out and handed the poker chip to the official,” Whitaker continued. “What you don’t see on the video is when he passes by, he sees it’s a cheap poker chip. He starts laughing, I start laughing, we point at each other, and I walked off. That is it. Coach Tekyl can tell you the same story. The official has been contacted. He has the poker chip in his bag. It’s a meaningless poker chip with no value whatsoever. He has it in the bag with his whistle. That’s the story. If social media wants to make this out to be something else, that’s not true.”

While everything he said could certainly be true, that handshake seemed rather sneaky for it to be a poker chip. In addition, whatever was in his hand seemed to be something that he could crumble and typically poker chips don’t crumble.

Hopefully we will find out the truth.

Jason Fletcher is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.