A Tennessee lawmaker has apologized after he was kicked out of his son's high school basketball game for laying his hands on the referee.
Jeremy Faison - a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives - took to Twitter to express his sincere regret, admitting he had "acted the fool" and "lost his temper".
In a video of the dustup posted to social media, the lawmaker appears to try and pull down the referee's pants - or 'pants' him.
Check out the moment in the video below:The game between Providence Academy and Lakeway Christian Academy took place on Tuesday. Faison attended to support his son who is on the Lakeway team but ended up stealing the show when he got into an argument over decisions.
Thanks to a live stream of the event, the whole incident was captured on video.
Faison can initially be seen sitting in the stands. When players hit the ground in the third quarter, a brief scuffle between the teams breaks out.
The lawmaker can then be seen heading down to the court to confront the referee over his decisions. According to a report provided by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, Faison was told to leave the court - but wasn't having it.
"You can’t tell me to leave the floor this was your fault," he said, per The Guardian, jabbing a finger in the ref's face and squaring up to him.
Faison can then be seen grabbing the referee's pants and seemingly trying to tug them down. But the pants stay put and Faison hurriedly walks away.
He was subsequently kicked out of the game.
In an apology message posted to Twitter, Faison described his actions as "embarrassing", writing: "For years I thought how wrong it is when a parent loses their temper at a sporting event. It's not Christian and it's not mature and it's embarrassing to the child."
He continued: "Unfortunately, I acted the fool tonight and lost my temper on a ref. I was wanting him to fight me. Totally lost my junk and got booted from the gym.
"I’ve never really lost my temper but I did tonight and it was completely stupid of me.
"Emotions getting in the way of rational thoughts are never good. I hope to be able to find the ref and ask for his forgiveness. I was bad wrong."
Faison has been the House caucus chairman for Republicans since 2019, making him among the most influential individuals in the House, The Guardian reports.
His childish behavior drew criticisms from Knoxville Democrat Gloria Johnson, who tweeted on Wednesday that "'Pantsing' a ref on the gym floor is next level bullying… not even the stuff of middle school locker rooms."
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