Football player gets 10-year sentence for assaulting referee during upstate NY semipro game

Football player imprisoned for NY referee attack

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A football player has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for slamming a referee in the face with his helmet at the end of an unruly semiprofessional game in upstate New York.

Running back Leon Woods had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. He apologized Friday for seriously injuring veteran referee Peter McCabe Jr. at Edgerton Park in Rochester last October.

His guilty plea in June came after a brief hearing at his trial, when a judge said Woods could be heard making an incriminating statement in a recording.

The 54-year-old McCabe suffered a fractured skull and had his nose and multiple bones in his face broken. Witnesses said he was attacked without warning by a Western New York Cougars player wearing Woods’ number.