Fitch mum on Brunswick player's protest of teammates alleged use of racial slurs

AUSTINTOWN

After a Brunswick High School football quarterback told his teammates not to use the N-word in reference to Austintown Fitch High School football team members, he received backlash from the people he thought were his friends.

According to Fox 8 News in Cleveland, Rodney Axson knelt and prayed during the national anthem in protest to his teammates’ using racial slurs against the opposing team.

Some of his teammates apparently were offended by his actions and some have been accused of sending Axson offensive, racist text messages and Snapchats, resulting in local police and NAACP investigations.

Fitch beat Brunswick 27-20 in a road contest Sept 2. Fitch coach Phil Annarella said he had no comment on the matter when approached after practice Tuesday but indicated that he didn’t hear of anything out of order about the game until Monday. He declined to say if he addressed the situation with his team.

“How am I playing it? I have no comment. You guys feed on all the salacious stories, and I’m not getting caught up in it,” Annarella said. “You need to talk to the Brunswick people. Nothing happened on our end.”

As practice ended, Annarella made his four captains – J.C. Mikovich, Larry Harrington, Bryce Warmouth and Zack Krohn – available to speak about this Friday’s game against Warren Harding.

When asked about Brunswick, Warmouth spoke first.

“There’s no comment as of right now,” the senior defensive end said. “Again, we have nothing to say about it, and we’re just going to leave it at that.”

Read more about the situation in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.