A football game turned into a viral discipline file
A middle-school football game in Winchester, Tennessee, took a hard left turn Tuesday night when 16-year-old Addison Hunnicutt ran onto the field during a matchup between South Middle School and Cornersville Middle School. Her brother plays for Cornersville. According to WTMV, the play had stopped because of a penalty when Hunnicutt came off the sideline area and tackled a South Middle School player to the ground. Video also shows her shoving him back down as he tried to get up. That is one way to make sure the adults finally notice, though it is not one the rule book recommends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbvTQA3Ifbg
The sheriff’s office and school system moved fast
After the incident, Hunnicutt was removed from the field and later charged with assault and disorderly conduct by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. She was also given a lifetime ban from Franklin County Schools properties. Police also told her she could not attend any more Cornersville Middle School games. So the bureaucracy did what bureaucracy does best: it arrived with forms, bans, and a very firm belief that the paperwork should outlive the football season.
Hunnicutt says she was defending her brother
On Thursday, Hunnicutt told WTVF that there was more behind her decision than a sudden urge to join the game. She said she saw the South Middle School player repeatedly going after her brother. According to her account, the player grabbed her brother’s face mask and spun him around several times, then hit him in the ribs. “I wasn’t going after this kid just to go after him,” Hunnicutt said. “That wasn’t my intention at all. Seeing what they were doing to him and no one stopping it, that kind of made me the last choice.” She added, “Somebody has to stop this.”
Both families say their children were wronged
Hunnicutt’s mother, Elizabeth Chumbley, told WTMV she did not excuse her daughter’s actions and made sure Hunnicutt understood she should not have jumped the fence. But Chumbley also said she saw her son “on the ground being attacked” and argued it was not just a normal football play. The South Middle School player’s father, Brandon Taylor, praised his son’s “character” and “restraint” in a Facebook post after the incident. Taylor wrote that his son’s first response afterward was, “She better be glad she’s a girl,” and said his 13-year-old son did not deserve to be tackled, pushed, or humiliated on the field.
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