During last's night game against the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens cornerback, Samari Rolle, says the official called him 'boy' five times.
"The ref called me a boy," he said. "I will be calling my agent in the morning and sending in my complaint. I have a wife and three kids. So don't call me a boy on the field ... in the game. Because we said you never played football before?"
But wait, the official is Black and a also a former NFL player, so he knows better.
Apparently, Rolle and the official, Phil McKinnely exchanged words after Rolle's teammate Bart Scott was charged with a penalty. Scott was given two personal fouls, one included throwing a flag into the stands.
"He called me a boy several times," Rolle said. "After Bart got the first one (penalty) I said, 'Man, you never played football before, and you're going to call the game like this?' And he was like, 'Shut up, boy, and play, boy.' He just kept saying it. He'll be hearing from my lawyer."
The league office is supposedly going to look into it. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out.
But Rolle is right. It is disrepectful to address a grown man as a 'boy' in that manner. After all that is their workplace.
But being as though, McKinnely is Black and a former player, I wonder what his motivation was, like I said, he knows better. That came down to respect.
In the heat of the moment, being called a 'boy' can trigger a chain reaction and can be taken as testing someone's manhood.
To top if off the Ravens were losing, so that only made it worse.
McKinnely probably talked like that all the time and it was just never given a second thought by a player. After this, it'll never happen again.
