Watch: Fla. youth football brawl probed by cops

(CBS/AP) Sheriff's investigators are reviewing a video of a brawl at a youth football game last weekend in which a referee was tackled by a player and then attacked while he was on the ground.

Attacking an athletic official is a felony in Florida, and a Sarasota Sheriff's Office spokesman said two or three people could be facing criminal charges as a result of the melee that broke out Saturday during a game between teams of 13- and 14-year-old boys.

A video made by someone in the stands and released by the sheriff's office shows a coach from the Sarasota Gators scuffling with a referee in an end zone before a helmetless player comes flying in and levels the official. Others join in the attack after the referee is on the ground.

"The video speaks for itself," Sheriff's Col. Steve Burns said. "It was disturbing."

Burns would not say if the player who tackled the referee would face charges. The referee was not seriously injured and declined to comment on the incident.

The referee, Jaymee Ream of St. Petersburg, is not talking on camera just yet, but his wife told WTSP that she saw the video for the first time last night and couldn't believe what she saw.

"Couldn't believe what I saw. These children and their parents doing this to my husband. He was just doing his job," she said.

She said she and her husband are surprised how quickly the video spread on the Internet.

"We're caught in the middle of this. We can't believe it happened," she told WTSP.

James Hogan, president of the Middle Florida Football and Cheerleading Conference, the group that oversees the Gators and other youth football leagues, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that it may expel the entire Gators group, which includes five teams with players ranging in age from 4 to 14.