Now the mayor is taking the team out to lunch....
The Cathedral High School football team are “winners” in the eyes of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who plans to invite the team to a victory lunch, saying he doesn’t buy the referee’s controversial call that cost the kids the Super Bowl title.
“The young men at Cathedral are winners in our eyes, regardless of the call on the field, and they deserve to celebrate,” said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. “We’ll always consider the city kids our real Super Bowl champions.”
The mayor wants to first speak to the hard-luck team today to let them know how he feels, and declined to comment himself last night.
Cathedral was on its way to clinching its first Super Bowl championship in history on Saturday when a referee flagged quarterback Matthew Owens, after the high school senior raised his left arm for two strides as he raced across the 20-yard line during the final minutes of the game.
Owens scored what would have been the winning touchdown, but was flagged for violating a new sportsmanship rule and the play was nullified. The rival team, Blue Hills Regional Technical School, took home the Division 4A championship trophy with a 16-14 victory.
The quarterback’s father, Kenneth Owens, has told the Herald that his son — who also plays basketball and baseball for Cathedral — just had a “normal human reaction that all football players do” as he sprinted toward a touchdown, and was thanking God.
Despite the heartbreaking loss at Bentley University’s field, Cathedral football coach Duane Sigsbury said his players will be thrilled by Menino’s invitation.
“That’s unbelievable,” Sigsbury said last night. “That would be an unbelievable gesture from a great man. They’ll be ecstatic, believe me, they’ll love that.”
Sigsbury said his football players are resilient.
“They’ve been great,” he said.
Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the Boston archdiocese, said: “This is very thoughtful and generous of the mayor. It is very much appreciated especially for the student athletes who deserve to celebrate their great achievements this season.”
Sigsbury acknowledged that Owens was among a group of Cathedral players flagged during the first quarter for high-fiving one another after a tackle on third down and short, but he said he doesn’t think it had any bearing on the controversial arm raise call: “It was two different referees calling two different plays.”
Yesterday, Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association spokesman Paul Wetzel said the organization is waiting for the complete report from game officials before releasing it.
According to Wetzel, the unfinished report says the referee determined Owens’ arm lift violated the celebratory rule during the course of a play, so he called the penalty.
“As far as they’re concerned, it’s pretty cut and dry,” said Wetzel, who wouldn’t release the referee’s name. “That is it. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Owens’ mother, Cathy Greene, said, “I’m sad, yes. My husband is sad, too, about it, but Matthew — he doesn’t care. It’s kind of like it’s done. We lost. It’s over.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_1207mayor_flags_em_winners_plans_to_meet_with_spurned_cathedral_team/srvc=home&position=0
ref had money on this game
