The article does not say what exactly was supposed to constitute the alleged bullying. So it's hard to discuss, since we just don't know.
But generally, once you start calling all sorts of things bullying, even when you're not talking about violence or threats of violence, you've opened the door to just about anything being called bullying, followed by an argument about whether it is or isn't.
As best I can tell from the article, there was no trash talk or anything. This was just a case of two teams who maybe shouldn't be on each other's schedule because of the evident, extreme mismatch. But once they're on the field, what are they supposed to do? Should they fumble on purpose a few times? If they did, would their patronizing ways also be attacked? How can the winning team ever hope to please all these people?
To me, bullying means violence or threats of violence. It doesn't mean someone said something mean or insulting and it doesn't mean I felt bad after you said something. (The fact that I haven't learned how to deal with things doesn't necessarily mean you did anything all that wrong.) Generally speaking, adolescent years and immaturity go hand in hand, and immaturity includes a lack of empathy, so as we know all young people say nasty things to each other. The adults have to make them stop at the time and then teach them to stop for the long term. But labeling kids who do the most ordinary things as bullies isn't doing anything but putting teenagers into PC handcuffs.
We have got to get to the point where we don't kowtow to everyone who whines about something. Sometimes you have to tell them, "That is not something we're going to deal with at all," or even "We don't see anything wrong with that." As opposed to, "We'll launch a full investigation" every time someone kvetches. As best I can tell, we're going to end up spending all of our budgets investigating every will-o-the-wisp conjured up in the minds of the whiners. If verbal insults are bullying, to me the complainer is more guilty than the players or the coaches here. Because that is the person who set out to cause someone else trouble just by being a jerk.
Just once I would like to see a press conference where a spokesman says, "We did receive a complaint that used the term 'bullying.' But no specific behavior that meets the definition of bullying was actually described, and both coaches have told us that despite the lopsided score, both teams behaved with the utmost in sportsmanship. We realize that the score may have left someone smarting, but throwing around baseless accusations is not an appropriate way to respond. We see no reason to subject anyone to any investigations, and we don't intend to take this any further. We actually think the person filing the complaint owes the players and the coaches an apology for accusing them without basis."