In what was described as a “tense” and “chippy” varsity football game at Framingham on Nov. 15, two African-American athletes from the high school were allegedly called derogatory, offensive and racist names, according to coach Nicholas Rothstein.

Sophomores Jared Farley and Tim Campbell, both offensive players, said they heard a defensive player on Framingham’s team call them the N-word.

“Me and Jared were blocking him and we were doing pretty well on him I guess and he was getting upset with it,” Campbell said. “He said some things he shouldn’t have said.”

A Brookline player was also ejected for kicking a Framingham player after getting blocked in a way that was borderline illegal, according to Rothstein.

Senior Max Kaklins also confirmed that he heard the name calling. Coaches Keith Thomas and Rothstein said they informed the referees and the Framingham coach about the incident.

“We talked to the coach after [the play],” Farley said. “Me and Devyn Perkins. It was an African-American coach. We told him what the white player, 72, said to us. The coach responded by saying, that was his player being aggressive. He didn’t really own up to his player actually saying it and being offensive.”

The referees gathered the players currently playing together and briefly talked to them. The referees did not punish the Framingham team because both the alleged name caller and the Framingham head coach denied that these actions occurred and the game went on, according to Rothstein.

“At the end of the game one of our coaches and one of their coaches, one of our players and a player in question from Framingham, who we believe to be the one who used the word, got together and had a five minute conversation,” Rothstein said. “The coach and the player denied anything that was said. We left pretty unsatisfied.”

Thomas said that it is difficult to deal with a “he said, she said” situation like this. The coaches and captains are trying to arrange a meeting with Framingham to discuss the events.

Campbell is not sure if the Framingham athlete meant the name calling or if he was using the names to get the Brookline players off their game.

“It was definitely offensive at first,” Campbell said. “The kid might have been apologetic after. Some people say some things in the heat of battle that they don’t mean. I don’t know. He said it a couple of times.”

Farley said that the player was being ignorant, but the comments agitated him.

“At the time, I think we were up by six, 6-0,” Farley said. “He was hot-headed. He just said what he thought would get under our skin and I guess it did, but we just felt offended. It was not needed.”

When Thomas and Rothstein played football in high school, they said racist name calling happened often but that it different back then. Some players say things like this to get into the opposing players head, according to Thomas.

“And I think some people do things to try to get you out of your game,” Thomas said. “Try to get calls made. Try to get you to react and in some circumstances it works. The person it hurts is the person who reacts to those types of things. Do they really mean it? It’s hard to say at the moment.”

Thomas used this moment to teach the team about emotional discipline and to address the true meaning of the racial slur used. He said that he wanted to teach them how it could make someone feel hearing it.

“Football is a game of emotions and sometimes those emotions get the best of people. It’s a game of discipline. You have to learn how to discipline yourself sometimes to not respond and respond in the right way and not in a negative way that causes more harm than what was done.”

Thomas said that the best thing that could come from this is for the Framingham player to look into Campbell’s and Farley’s eyes and to admit to it.

Rothstein and Thomas said that they have not had a problem with racism from any other team this year, nor are they aware of any incidents in the past.

“This is the first team we have that this has happened that I know of,” Rothstein said. “I think that we’ve played plenty of teams that have great players that play honorably and fair and the furthest thing from their mind is using inciting language and racist language.”

Alex Friedman can be contacted at [email protected].