A fight between groups of parents caused two teams of five and six-year-old football players to be banned from their local Super Bowl series.
The pee-wee teams from St. Martin, Mississippi, who take part in the state's Gulf League were disqualified from each of their games following the fight in a parking lot, reported the Mississippi Press.
"A handful of parents can't control themselves," said Jimmy Williams, a St. Martin Youth Football Association board member. "This handful of parents ruined it not only for their kids, but all the other kids, as well."
According to both Williams and Ezell Johnson Jr., a coach of one of the teams, the two teams were playing Tuesday night for a berth in the coast-wide Super Bowl when a fight broke out between as many as four parents outside the youth football facility in Vancleave, which was hosting the playoffs.
Both Williams and Johnson said at least two of the parents involved in Tuesday's fight had already been banned from both the St. Martin and Vancleave facilities for an incident involving racial slurs which occurred during the regular season at the St. Martin facility. The players were allowed to finish the season, only when their mothers brought them to practices and games.
Williams said Jesse Peterson, president of both the Vancleave youth league and the coast-wide association, made an announcement multiple times during Tuesday's game that any incidents would result in the disqualification of both teams from Saturday's championships.
Suffice it to say, he parents "weren't pleased" about the decision and did not understand why the children had been punished.
"The rules say the coaches are responsible for the parents, but that's inside the facility," said Williams. "We can't control what happens outside."
So once again innocent kids suffer for the antics of overzealous sports parents.