Opinion: Baldwin Coach Handles Social Media Rants with Grace After Viral Facemask–Slap

Dana Brown Jr. condemned the act and supports discipline—without “throwing a kid away”—after Anthony Petro struck a helmetless Landon Honick in Baldwin’s 57–0 loss to Elizabeth Forward

Baldwin coach Dana Brown Jr. / Dana Brown Jr.

Baldwin football coach Dana Brown Jr. had a reasonable response to a situation which the ruthless internet crowd jumped on. Brown wasn’t happy with junior defensive back Anthony Petro for tearing an opponent to the ground by the facemask before slapping an opponent who didn’t have a helmet on in the back of the head during the Highlanders’ 57-0 loss to Elizabeth Forward Friday night.

Brown’s message: Condemn the Act, Develop the Kid

But he wasn’t going to throw in the towel on a student because of a lapse in judgement either.

“While accountability is essential, it’s also unfortunate of the things said by some of the public response calling of extreme punitive measures such as 'throw the him away,'” Brown wrote on X. “This was a mistake by a 16-year-old, a young man still learning and growing.”

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Warning: The tweet below of the incident contains explicit language.

Facemask with a side of assault pic.twitter.com/7N0NlZ7Bfy

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 20, 2025

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It was nice to see there are still some adults left in the room. The response to the video was overboard. There will be a punishment, it doesn't make sense why people can't let things play out through the discipline process instead of being quick to add insult to injury with nasty words online.

There are fights in football games every Friday night. Sucker punches are thrown, legs are twisted in piles and tempers boil over.

The player who was hit: “I’m fine and harbor no anger”

Petro shouldn’t have slapped Landon Honick while he was sitting on the ground. But the incident didn’t boil over. There was no melee after.

Honick was calm about it and ultimately took to X to share that he had no lasting effects from the hit.

“There is no room for this type of activity in sports and this is unacceptable,” Honick wrote on X. “I’ve had many people reach out to me to see if I am OK? I just wanted everyone to know I am fine and harbor no anger.”

Accountability, not a public pile-on

This isn’t a suggestion that Petro shouldn’t be punished. He should serve a suspension. A dismissal from the program could be warranted. It was a stupid decision. But this is another case of what makes social media a giant cesspool.

Why social media made it worse

Many of the comments on Brown’s statement on social media were of people asking Grok to explain what he said.

The people who were outraged couldn’t take 30 seconds to read an apology. But they could take the time to type out rapid-fire attacks on the program, coach and athlete.

Bottom line: punish the action, protect the person

"Again, I want to be clear: The behavior was 110 percent unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Brown said. “But let us not throw a kid away, but understand our purpose as adults and the role we play to kids and that’s to develop character, resilience and growth through both success and mistakes.”

--Josh Rizzo | rizzo42789@gmail.com | @J_oshrizzo