A newly released police video shows Mississippi basketball coach Andy Kennedy pleading with an officer before his arrest on an assault charge.
"I'm begging you ... this is a major deal, man," Kennedy told police.
He added: "This is going to be a national incident, sir."
Kennedy was arrested in downtown Cincinnati on Dec. 18 after a taxi driver said Kennedy hit him and used racial slurs.
On the video broadcast by WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, an officer warned Kennedy to do what police say.
"You turn on me one more time, I'm going to start making some more charges. Do you understand me?" an unidentified police officer told Kennedy.
Kennedy told an officer that he was formerly the University of Cincinnati head coach and was in town to play "Louisville and Rick Pitino" on national television.
Kennedy also told police on the video that he had a verbal altercation about how many people could ride in the cab, and that it "makes no sense" to arrest him.
In response to his pleas, an officer said: "You think we've never arrested somebody that's made national media? ... We deal with the Bengals all the time."