Unnamed Razorback Player Accused of Using Racial Slurs

CBSSports.com is reporting that Florida center, Jon Harrison, who was ejected during the game in Gainesville against the Arkansas Razorbacks, claims he was the victim of on-field racial taunting.

CBSSports reports:

“What happened was, one play I got face-masked, then the next play I got called every version of the ‘N-word’ known to man,” Harrison said, per 247Sports affiliate GatorBait.net. “And I went up to the ref and I’m like, ‘Ref, please, you have to control this player. He’s been calling me every racial slur.'”

Harrison said the incident with the official was a misunderstanding.

“I talk with my hands as you guys probably have seen this whole time and I touched the ref in his chest, I didn’t poke him, but I was talking like this,” Harrison said, “waving his hands” according to GatorBait.

“I was honestly was just trying to tell the ref to get this player because I was getting attacked, I felt like I was getting harassed, and it was beyond football,” Harrison said. “Calling me the N-word and everything is not football anymore.”

Harrison is refusing to name the player he claims racially taunted him throughout the game. Video of the incident is below.

Immediately following the game against Arkansas, the Associated Press quoted Florida’s head football coach Will Muschamp as saying: “”He did something he shouldn’t have done.” The report said Muschamp declined to elaborate.

Arkansas head football coach Bret Bielema has sounded off on the matter, naming the player who had been unnamed by Harrison, but is clearly Jarrett Lake in the video below.

NFL.com reports this from Bielema:

“I remember the player that was ejected, and the play that it happened on. I immediately called — it was Jarrett Lake that the play actually happened on — I asked Lake and he categorically denied anything of that nature,” Bielema said. “I think if it was a big deal, I probably would have heard about it after the game, not four weeks later. I understand that player just (this week) got a chance to talk. But that wouldn’t go on with our guys.”

Bielema said he was on the road recruiting Tuesday, with Arkansas entering an idle week, and was alerted to Harrison’s comments when an Arkansas communications official called him. Lake, a senior linebacker, is African-American. In fact, Bielema noted, so was every other player in the defensive lineup that night for the Razorbacks.

“Actually, in the Florida game, all 11 of our defensive players were African-American. I have a hard time believing that anyone on our roster would say anything along those lines without getting noticed by our own guys,” he said. “I don’t see an issue there.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uju88zwhCtI