This is hard to believe.

In Texas, the football coach at Willis High School removed six players from the team after they were late for practice. Their reason for being late? They were donating blood at a school blood drive.

Coach Mack Malone has refused comment, perhaps under the advice of the district or its legal counsel. But according to the players, when they arrived at practice, Malone told them they were done playing at Willis.

“The first thing (the coach) said was, ‘You’re off the team. Your career at Willis High School is over,'” football player Phillip McKenna said.

“We were all ready for practice,” player Jeff Chachem said. “We were going out to practice and all of our stuff was taken out of our lockers and we were told to go home, that we were done playing football.”

The subsequent uproar forced the school to reinstate the players, though they lost their starting positions, and they were suspended for one game as punishment for their tardiness.

“We did lose our starting positions,” Chachem said. “We do have to work and run to get them back, so it’s still showing that we’re being punished.”

The players will also not be allowed to participate in the team’s next game on Friday.

Taken at face value, this incident reflects very poorly on Malone. Six players were late to practice for a reason most would consider noble and selfless. His response — immediate dismissal — seems best suited for the latest in a pattern of misbehavior, or for a truly egregious violation of rules. Even the school superintendent said Malone “overreacted.”

That is where uncertainty begins to arise. Malone’s reaction to a seemingly minor incident seems very much over the top; that perception prompts one important question: was his response truly out of the blue, or had these players shown a pattern of misbehavior?

While that information would be helpful, the reports give no indication of persistent malfeasance on the part of the athletes; thus, any judgments based on that potential justification would be pure speculation.

Discarding such speculation, we are left simply with the reported incident: a coach summarily dismissed six players for being late to practice due to a school blood drive. In that light, we are left with the image of a coach who seems to have reacted excessively and impulsively to what should have been a minor incident.

This is not to say there was no justification for punishment. While these players were not late for purely irresponsible or illegal reasons, they were still late, and there is no indication of their having given Malone advance warning of their late arrival. In that case, it would be his responsibility as a coach to enforce consequences for their late arrival.

That being said, immediate dismissal for an instance of tardiness seems excessive, to say the least. Even his modified punishment, levied after he was compelled to apologize and reinstate the players, seems larger than the crime.

In the end, this incident substantially alters Malone’s position in eyes of his athletes and their parents, and it may irrevocably damage his leadership credibility among those whose success depends on it. If that occurs, his departure would be best action, both for Malone and for the school.

The players said they are happy to be back on the team but wish things could return to normal.

“I’m not going to be able to look at him the same way,” player Garrett Scott said.