A lawsuit filed by parents at the Simeon Career Academy says the man attended the game in a referee’s uniform and helped sway the outcome of the game. His son’s team, Nazareth Academy, won.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I’m Steve Inskeep. It’s high school football playoff season, and the parent of an Illinois player left nothing to chance. He allegedly attended a game in a referee’s uniform. He worked his way into the game standing on the sidelines talking with the real refs, and his son’s team, Nazareth Academy, came back to win. The Chicago Tribune says boosters of the losing team are suing, but the fake ref defended himself on Facebook saying I didn’t make one bad call. I made sure the best team won. It’s MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.