By Nicole Bode and Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — The Downtown Giants were robbed.
Manhattan's only public youth football team won a nailbiter in overtime on Wednesday, but the American Youth Football League denied them the championship title, citing a paperwork snafu.
“It's sad that the bureaucratic mess ups ruined our chance to become national champs," said 16-year-old defensive end Dylan Weathered. "The situation was really unfair. We worked so hard to get here.”
The Giants pulled off a sensational 20-13 victory in overtime in what was supposed to be the championship game against Rhode Island's Central Falls Panthers in Orlando, Fla.
But the team was forced to relinquish the title because American Youth Football League officials claimed the team's official roster was missing five of the players who showed up at the tournament last Saturday.
"They broke our hearts," Giants' coach Julian Swearengin said of league officials. "We had a choice, play without the five or forfeit. We chose to play with our full team."
The coach told his players about the mistake after Monday's game when the Giants beat Houston's Third Ward 49ers 28-14.
"They were crushed," Swearengin said. "We told them yesterday and they played like warriors today."
The team is baffled as to how the paperwork error occurred. They insist the league cleared their players not once, but twice, before allowing them to fork over $12,000 for transportation and mandatory hotel rooms.
The league, however, said the roster sent for the tournament earlier this month didn't match the official sealed one submitted by the team in October.
"They should have read the rulebook, should have read the process, and should have followed it," said league commissioner Bill Brown.
"I think they made an honest mistake. If I didn't, I wouldn't have allowed them to play."
Brown admits the league didn't give the team any indication there was a problem with their roster until they arrived in Orlando, due to the volume of players and teams involved in the tournament.
The Giants had "tears streaming down their faces" as they accepted their third place trophies on Wednesday, according to Swearengin.
"The boys have decided to be respectful of the two other teams and not protest," Swearengin said.
As DNAinfo reported exclusively, the Giants went 7–2 during their regular season, and beat more experienced and physically bigger teams from around New York to earn a wild card spot in the American Youth Football League’s National Championships.
The team raised most of the money for the trip through donations and the coaches' own pockets.
"It was so close," said Linda Ortega, mother of Lucas Ortega, who was one of the Giants reportedly missing from the roster, despite the fact that he's been on the team since it was founded four years ago.
"They won it right down to the last second. That was one of the hardest games they ever had to play."
The roster mistake evoked mixed reactions, some angry and others proud.
"Some people say it's a lesson learned. What's the lesson?" asked Ortega. "That organized sports is unfair? That there's cheating involved? That adults won't stand up for you? That you have to walk away with third place when you beat both teams?"
Swearengin, however, is proud of how his team responded to the controversy.
"They played like champions," he said. "Who can possibly say that we aren't the national champions?"
