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A video that appears to show a Los Angeles Salesian high school football player smearing IcyHot in the face of a La Cañada player was released on Thursday. The footage, taken from a Sept. 4 game, supports claims that the Salesian player reached under the face mask of La Cañada junior Angel Salazar, and rubbed the pain relief substance on his face.
"It was just a [cheap] shot by the other team," Salazar said last week, according to the L.A. Times. "I didn't really know what was going on until the kid put his hand [inside Salazar's helmet] and rubbed IcyHot in my eyes."
La Cañada's head football coach Ryan Zerbel said Salazar immediately told a referee, and came back to the sideline, where a trainer flushed the white substance away from his face and neck.
Salazar's mother Leslie Bess told the Times, "I thought the worst possible, that he was struck with a sharp object. I never imagined it could be some cream."
IcyHot claimsthat it's "Icy to dull the pain, and hot to relax it away," but when it's smeared all over an unsuspecting teen's face, it can do way more harm than good. La Cañada principal Ian McFeat told CBS L.A. "If it really got in your eyes, it can do some damage."
According to the Pasadena Star-News, Salesian High School principal Alex Chacon called La Cañada principal McFeat on Friday morning to apologize. La Cañada Athletic Director Kristina Kalb told the Star-News, "Their principal....said as more information came to light in the media, that he looked at the incident from a different perspective...We are appreciative for the fact that Salesian’s principal reached out and apologized for what transpired that evening."
Principal Chacon said they "take the allegation very seriously," and have submitted their findings to the CIF. But because no ejection took place at the time, the CIF has no authority to intercede in the matter, a spokesman from the Southern Section told the L.A. Times. Kalb also told the L.A. Times that she sees this lack of involvement from the CIF as an indication of the governing body's failure. "I had a player who had been injured and harmed," said Kalb.
Now Bess, who also attempted to contact Principal Chacon herself with no results, is considering filing a criminal complaint.
Footage of the incident starts at the 0:25-second mark:
