Gainesville high school football suspensions: What we know, what’s next

Gainesville High’s road to a Class 5A football title got significantly more complicated after a fight late in a second-round win over Brunswick triggered sweeping suspensions.

The Georgia High School Association initially suspended 39 Gainesville players for their role in the altercation on Nov. 21. Four players — including star defenders Xavier Griffin, an AJC Super 11 selection, and Jamarion Matthews, both Alabama commits — were reinstated after the school appealed.

On Wednesday last week, a superior court judge granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would allow 34 suspended Gainesville football players to participate in a highly anticipated matchup with No. 1 Langston Hughes.

The GHSA announced plans to challenge that ruling in court and postponed the quarterfinal game, originally scheduled to kick off last Friday.

“We don’t feel the decision was accurate,” GHSA executive director Tim Scott said. “The judge made the decision that we did not follow the bylaws. We absolutely did follow the bylaws, so we’re going to appeal that.”

On Monday, the GHSA decided not to fight the restraining order. Gainesville will play Hughes in the Class 5A football quarterfinals Friday at near full strength.

The decision to play the Gainesville-Hughes game Friday resulted in a schedule change for both 5A semifinals, which now will be played Thursday, Dec. 11.

The Roswell-Thomas County Central game, originally scheduled for this Friday, will be pushed back to ensure all semifinal teams have the same rest before the championship game. Rome will play winner of Gainesville-Hughes game.

Gainesville’s game against Brunswick was halted with 1:57 left in the third quarter and the 42-0 win awarded to No. 4-ranked Red Elephants, but the fallout has clouded the game with Hughes.

“Obviously I can’t think of a bigger distraction to have to deal with,” Gainesville athletic director Adam Lindsey told the AJC before Wednesday’s hearing. “We’ve suggested to (the players) to stay off social media. Knowing they’re teenagers, that’s probably not going to happen. Parents are probably not going to do that either. Our message to them is focus on the task at hand. Who’s available? How can we move forward? But they’re frustrated. They’re hurt. They feel they’re being cheated again by a system put in place to protect them.”

Gainesville vs. Brunswick game: The fight that suspended play

Video of the incident shows a Brunswick wide receiver pulling the helmets off two Gainesville players, then punching another. A second Brunswick player sprinted in and blindsided a Gainesville player, knocking him to the ground.

Players from both teams surged toward midfield, escalating the melee and drawing in players from each sideline — a violation of GHSA rules.

“If you got siblings, if you’ve got a wife, you’ve got a husband, and they were on that field, and they got their helmet ripped and then got jabbed in the face, what would you do?” Gainesville football coach Josh Niblett said. “Or you might stay on the sideline. Well, let me tell you this. When your brother doesn’t have a helmet on, and a guy takes a 40-yard sprint and hits him and sideswipes him, you’re just going to stand on the sideline? No, you’re going to do what’s natural. You’re going to protect your brothers. And this is the way I’ve raised these kids.”

GHSA hands down punishment

The GHSA issued major penalties to both schools:

• Brunswick received a one-year postseason ban, which will end its streak of seven consecutive playoff appearances.
• Forty-one Brunswick players were suspended.
• Brunswick was fined $5,000, as was Gainesville.
• Gainesville’s 39 suspended players initially faced one-game sit-outs.

Brunswick, one of southeast Georgia’s most consistent programs, has won region titles in four of the past five seasons and reached the second round six of the past seven years.

Gainesville appeals

Gainesville appealed the suspensions via Zoom on Tuesday. The school conceded discipline for four players who threw punches but argued for reinstating the other 35, most of whom left the bench area — normally an automatic one-game suspension under GHSA bylaws.