The league announced Friday that umpire Roy Ellison will not
work an NFL game this weekend as punishment for words directed
at left tackle Trent Williams late in the second quarter of the
Redskins' loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
The
National Football League Referees Association issued a statement
Friday evening saying that it will file a grievance, that the
suspension was a rush to judgment without hearing Ellison's side
of the story.
Williams said he was called vulgar names — although not the
N-word — by Ellison and did nothing to provoke it. A replay from
the second quarter shows Ellison gesturing at Williams while
walking backward just before a snap, with Williams, quarterback
Robert Griffin III and tight end Niles Paul turning to look back
at the umpire. Redskins coach Mike Shanahan was among those who
supported Williams, saying: "You just can't use that type of
language to get your point across."
But John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance,
group that includes minority coaches and officials, said his
organization spoke to game officials who said that Ellison was
responding after Williams directed the N-word at Ellison. Both
Williams and Ellison are African-American. The incident, coming
in the wake of allegations involving racially charged texts
allegedly sent by Richie Incognito to a Miami Dolphins teammate,
led the alliance to issue a statement imploring all NFL players
to stop using the racial slur.
"I think that we all understand clearly that in terms of
supporting Roy, we're not in any way condoning his reaction to
what happened," Wooten told The Associated Press. "There's no
question in our mind what provoked all of this, that there was a
disrespectful communication going on between Trent and an Eagle
player. They were using the N-word along with all other type of
profanity, and the N-word is what caused Roy to say, 'Hey, you
need to be more respectful.'"
Wooten, 76, said Williams then directed the profanity at
Ellison.
"There is no question in my mind that Trent said this to Roy,
and I don't question that," said Wooten, who noted that he has
not spoken to Ellison directly. "And that's what, with Incognito
and all this stuff and the N-word and how it's used in the
locker room, that caused us to say, 'Hey, let's put an end to
this.'"
Wooten, who played nine seasons in the NFL with the Cleveland
Browns and Redskins, said Ellison should have thrown a flag on
Williams instead of escalating the exchange.
