Jul. 30—A former assistant football coach at Muskogee High School has filed a civil suit in Muskogee County District Court against a web streaming service and its owner seeking damages in excess of $75,000, according to court documents.

Scott Sapulpa is seeking damages from Oklahoma Sports Programming Network (OSPN) and Matthew Shawn Rowan, OSPN's owner, after an incident that occurred in March of 2021.

Rowan and Sapulpa were broadcasting a girls basketball state tournament game between Norman High School and Midwest City. The girls from Norman knelt on one knee during the national anthem, and Rowan took offense to the gesture.

During a break before the game started, Rowan is heard making racist comments about the Norman team.

On the video, and not realizing the microphone was still on, Rowan is heard to refer to the players as "f****** n******." He said, "I hope Norman gets their ass kicked," and then, "I hope they lose. C'mon Midwest City. They're gonna kneel like that? Hell no."

The Oklahoman had initially identified Sapulpa as the announcer who made the racist slurs. Sapulpa, a Hulbert coach at the time, was part of the film crew, but Rowan said Sapulpa was not the one who made the actual comment. Rowan admitted in a statement released through his attorney, Janet Bickel Hutson, that he "regrettably made some statements that cannot be taken back."

Rowan said that when he made the comments about the players, he didn't realize the microphone was on, and said his blood sugar was low, causing him to make the comments. The video was posted to Twitter, and within a few hours, it had circulated all over the country.

The documents state Rowan "accidentally and negligently" forgot to take his prescriptions, which caused him and OSPN to "accidentally, negligently and in violation of industry custom and practice," fail to turn the studio booth microphone off during the times which were not intended to be broadcast.

It also states OSPN and Rowan "negligently failed to clarify the record in a timely fashion that Rowan was the person who made the comments which were accidentally and negligently broadcast to the public," and Sapulpa wasn't.

Sapulpa alleges in the documents that the negligence "proximately caused bodily injury damages" to him, thus his justification for seeking of the compensatory damages against OSPN and Rowan.