XFL Referees' Surreal Conversation About Water-Squirting Penalty Gives Us Life

Here’s a mic’d up conversation you don’t see every day: Two football referees discussing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a player for squirting water at one of them. (Watch the video below.)

The infraction seemed to have happened off-camera during the Houston Roughnecks-DC Defenders XFL game on Monday in Washington. But thankfully, the officials’ chat was captured live for posterity on ESPN 2.

Note the head referee’s initial surprise at his colleague’s complaint.

“Where was he, on the sideline?” the ref asked.

“Correct. Behind me,” the squirted associate answered.

“No. 3? Squirting ... water?”

“Yes Sir.”

“You got it,” the head ref confirmed, and then explained the penalty to viewers. It almost sounded like a joke: “He squirted the down judge with a water bottle.” 

The culprit was Houston defensive back Ajene Harris, who didn’t seem too worked up over the call.

The DC Defenders won, 37-26. They are 6-0 and the only unbeaten team in the XFL, the rebooted league co-owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Defenders also are probably the only team to benefit from a squirting-the-referee call on their opponent.