Anyone who has ever played sports at a competitive level is likely to have run in to team “traditions” and bonding moments. However, few have run in to flat-out hazing and abuse.
Yet, that is exactly what one former Virginia Cavaliers football player is alleging in a federal lawsuit against the school.
The player, Aidan Howard, left the program this summer after alleged mental abuse over his learning disability and an injury sustained during a hazing incident. Howard allegedly suffered a broken eye socket during one hazing ritual.
Alleged in the suit are things like these:
“fostered a culture of bullying, abuse, harassment, and discrimination.” Howard, a freshman wide receiver, claimed he witnessed other football players coerce first-year teammates into “conduct which imitated and mimicked sexual acts,” and that players were forced to participate in fights and wrestling matches while naked or partially naked, “an act referred to at UVA as ‘ramming.'”
Howard has since transferred from the school in August, and is playing for and attending Robert Morris University, an FCS school.
The lawsuit names a pair of wide receivers on the Cavs team, Doni Dowling and David Eldridge, along with wide receivers coach Marques Hagans. It alleges that all three engaged in acts that repeatedly harassed him after being diagnosed with a learning disability during the summer.
From the report:
“[They] would question Aidan’s ‘toughness’ and ‘manliness’ and would call him ‘stupid,’ ‘dumb,’ ‘slow,’ and ‘retarded,'” the lawsuit states, alleging that the players would make fun of him because he didn’t comprehend plays and routes as well as his teammates.
The suit also alleges that wide receivers coach Marques Hagans harassed and bullied Howard when he didn’t understand something, which served to encourage similar discriminatory behavior among his teammates.
Howard also alleges that a fight was set up to “prove his manliness” against another freshman on the team. In that fight, Howard did suffer a broken eye socket and it appears that around 105 people were witness to the fight and did nothing to stop it.
Officials at UVa have begun investigating the claims made internally as well as taking on the lawsuit that Howard has presented. They refused comment due to the ongoing litigation and investigation on campus.
It certainly isn’t good news for first-year head coach Bronco Mendenhall, who has had a sterling reputation at his former institution — BYU.
[ESPN]
