A 3-year-old playing up against 5-year-olds in Winter Park, Florida had his soccer game end with police on the sideline Saturday, and his parents say it happened because nobody could get the ball off him.
The family’s video starts with the fun part. Playing in an i9 Sports league game at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, he runs straight through kids two years older than him and scores like nobody is in front of him. His parents post his highlights online, and sports pages have shared his clips before.
Then the video turns into the parents talking with officers on the sideline, and his father sums the whole thing up in one line:
“They really called the police on a 3 year old because he had the ball too much.”
Other parents can be heard saying the boy was trying to put on a show. His mother answered them: “Those grown ups huddled up talking about my son, but he ain’t doing nothing but playing soccer.” The family says the league kicked him out because nobody could take the ball from him, that officers walked them off the field, and that they got their registration money back. Former pro Eddie Johnson backed the boy publicly and called it sad.
Winter Park police put out a different version on Monday. The department says i9 Sports league director Thomas Hayes called 911 at 9:50 a.m. Saturday to report a parent causing a disturbance, and two officers arrived ten minutes later. Hayes told officers the parents were upset about the boy’s playing time and had been told he would no longer be allowed to play in the league because of their behavior. The parents told officers their son was being picked on for playing too well.
Police say nobody was arrested, nobody was trespassed and nobody was forced to leave the park. They say the family was cooperative, the game was already over, the family left on its own, and body camera footage backs the department up. Officers called it a civil matter. i9 Sports has not put out a public statement.
Both sides agree on the strangest part. A 3-year-old was playing two years up because he was that good, and the game still ended with grown ups arguing with police about him.
See also: Adrien Broner Was Cuffed and Put in a Police Car During a Beverly Hills Video Shoot, Then Let Go Without an Arrest and Georgia Commit Caught On Viral Tape In Carol City Grayson Postgame Brawl.