A male high school sports announcer is asking for forgiveness after he was heard on a hot mic making suicide jokes and inappropriate sexual comments about mothers of female athletes during a soccer game in Wichita, Kan., on Saturday.
Toby Moore — who was identified by Awful Announcing, which obtained a video of the hot mic incident — was heard during halftime telling another person that he contemplated killing himself because the play was so bad, before he commented on a female’s features who was sitting in the stands.
WARNING: DISTURBING LANGUAGE
“Oh, my goodness. God, was that first half as ugly as I thought it was? That game … that had no flow whatsoever,” he said. “… It’s a high school game and you can’t go, ‘What in the hell was that?’”
Another person agreed said, “You can!” to which Moore explained that it’s against his “policy” to call out high school athletes on-air.
“No. College games, I might, but high school games, I won’t,” Moore said. “Actions have consequences. It is my policy. It is beneath my dignity to call out high school players. I’ll try and subtly do it, but I’m just gonna say, this game blows.”
“… My mind kind of flicked the ‘kill me now switch’ at about 30 minutes in. If they are just gonna keep kicking the damn ball out of bounds and missing passes all day, I may as well just go home … I just want to do a header off the top of the press box.
“Unfortunately, it’s too low, it wouldn’t kill me … It’s like they aren’t even trying to pass. They are just chucking the ball downfield. A little technique will be nice. What the hell are they teaching these kids in practice? It’s unbelievable.”
The video was captured by a parent at the game, who then sent the footage to Awful Announcing, the outlet said.
The soccer game featured a third-place matchup between Rose Hill and McPherson in the Kansas Class 4A-1A state championship tournament at Stryker Sport Complex, which was aired live online on the NFHS Network streaming service Saturday.
Moore was also caught saying that a perk of the job was seeing the mothers of female soccer players attend the games.
“A bonus though of calling high school soccer? Girls soccer? For high school? The soccer moms,” he said.
“F–k yeah, baby. Up top, baby” he said. “… The one that’s facing us? See if she can tear it the f–k off … I can’t see the legs, but I can feel the ass hit from here.”
Another person can be heard saying, “She’s got nice curves … their ages are nice here too.”
Meanwhile, the song “Toxic” by Britney Spears was playing in the background.
Moore then acknowledged “we’d get in trouble” if anyone heard their conversation.
“This conversation never happened, by the way,” Moore said. “We’d get in trouble. I would have never had this conversation if [inaudible name] was sitting in that chair. We’ve been around long enough, we know what we’re doing.
“Alright alright, I think we got it all out of our system. We can put the mic live again and let it rip.”
Moore apologized in a statement, which described his comments as “tasteless” and “inexcusable” among other things.
“I would like to apologize to the Rose Hill and McPherson schools, players, coaches, families, and communities for my remarks last Saturday,” Moore said in a statement to Awful Announcing. “They were tasteless, stupid, and inexcusable. Those comments did not reflect the tremendous season and hard work both sides had during the year. Thank you to KSHSAA and NFHS for allowing me the privilege to call games on their network. I sincerely and deeply apologize for my tasteless and hurtful remarks and ask forgiveness from those that were hurt by my words.”
It’s unclear if he was disciplined in his role.
Moore posted about the game on X, formerly Twitter, prior to Saturday’s tournament.
He also calls games for Tulsa Athletic Soccer athletics and Rogers State University in Tulsa, Okla., per Awful Announcing.
Rose Hill won the game, 2-1, over McPherson.
