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Harlem Football Team Greeted With Racial Slur

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Oct 15, 2007 10:41 am US/Eastern

Harlem Football Team Greeted With Racial Slur

N-Word Written On Sideline Bench

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: When the Harlem Hellfighters arrived for a game on Staten Island, they were greeted with a racial slur scrawled on its sideline bench.
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For the teammates from Harlem a message of hate could have defeated them, instead they triumphed and overcame an ugly obstacle.

Six foot six, 320 pound Keith - is a football champion. But somebody tried to make him and his teammates feel small yesterday on Staten Island by using racist graffiti.

"It was like a punch in the gut," said the Co-Captain of the Harlem Hellfighters' football team.

The slur -- which included the N word was directed at teammates and was scrawled with a black marker on the visiting team's sideline bench on a Staten Island football field.

The Harlem Hellfighters were there to play the McKee-Staten Island Tech Seagulls.

Hellfighters' coach Duke Fergerson called police, who classified this as a possible hate crime.
But Fergerson says before officers arrived he was told he was overreacting, then a referee had the bench removed instead of keeping it there as evidence.

The coach for the Seagulls was unavailable for comment. Staten Island residents say they hope the case is solved soon, as does Assemblyman Keith Wright.

Wright said after the team saw the message of hate they huddled and vowed to take the high road and win the game - which they did beating the Seagulls 44 to 36.

The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force are on the case and that sideline bench is now police evidence, but no arrests have been made yet.

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