The slowest people on a football field aren't the quarterbacks, offensive linemen or defensive linemen. Even some 400-pound dudes can turn the switch on and zoom downfield as we've seen.
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You'd have to look to the men in the black-and-white-striped jerseys to find the absolute slowest guys. That's probably a good thing considering high school players aren't as skilled as college football and NFL players at dodging referees when trying to reach the end zone.
In one high school game between Darien High School and Southington High School in Connecticut, it wasn't any of the team's players who made the biggest play. It was a big-bodied referee that one running back somehow couldn't evade.
High School Referee Forces Fumble
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Hudson Hamill was open for a simple pass across the middle with space in front of him. All he had to do was cut past a referee he apparently never saw.
The referee, who was trying to get out of the way before seemingly lowering his shoulder, trucked the heck out of Hamill. The hit sent him to the ground and even popped the ball out of hands into a Southington player's possession.
Hamill looks back at the ref, who throws his hands in the air as if to say, "hey, I can't help it if you have terrible ball carrier vision" or "hey, you better learn to take hits like that if you want to play in college."
Even the comments on one YouTube video were hilarious.
"When you a linebacker by heart, but you a ref," one said.
"Even the refs are trying to get recruited nowadays," another joked.
The rulebook states that's a legal fumble. Hamill losing the ball didn't mean much, however, because Darien High still wound up winning the football game, 49-7.
While many players likely filled the box score and stat sheet from that game, no one had as vicious of a hit as that referee. Maybe he was just reliving his glory days as a middle linebacker.
This post was originally published in January 2021, but this referee hit is still wild.
