Spadola Suspended

[Pard4Life]

Man, even the Lafayette guys are off the rails trying to defend this. Question whether a suspension is the appropriate punishment, sure, but don't ask us to believe that a 20 year old guy doesn't know that as a white person you don't publically, in writing, call a Black person the n-word. What rock are you living under to believe this?

I am not defending Spadola, and I don't know what the rest of Lafayette thinks. I am offering an explanation as to why it happened. He was not calling out a specific player but the entire team from what we can tell. Also, if you look at how he even said it, it's the familiar hip-hop form... if he used it in the formal form you could definitely deduce he was maliciously saying it. He SHOULD have thought how others might perceive what he said, but the fact that hearing the word used so often in such buddy-buddy form probably did not even cause him to think that he was being malicious. This is not a 'hate' incident. Half of the Lehigh team is African-American and Spadola considers them to be family... you think he would have used the word if he fully understood what it meant and did not perceive it to be just a buddy-buddy word? Do his teammates even think for a moment that Spadola committed an act of hate?

[RichH2]

Guess I'm like most LU fans who wish this had never happened and that it would go away. What's the takeaway here? He made a mistake in repeating the word, regardless of context or who he was tweeting it to, which , at the very least was a lapse in judgment. He has allowed himself to be used as an object lesson by the NCAA, even tho no NCAA rules were broken, as an effective tool to warn all coaches and players about social media. Unfair but reality

[gsu6trophies]

Your a douchebage like spadola

http://www.acreativedesktop.com/supertroopers/officer-rod-farva-super-troopers.JPG

[tribefan40]

The fact that the NCAA had to come in & clean up the mess makes Lehigh look bad in this case.

Someone at Lehigh, whether it be the coach, the AD, the President, someone should've stood up. Wonder how the African-Americans that attend LU feel about that.

Another black eye for football-playing schools in the state of PA recently....

You seriously put this in the same ballpark as the situation at Penn State? This entire situation is a reach, at best. I'm not condoning the behavior in any way, but a kid said something ignorant and made the mistake of posting it for all the world to see. Hardly worth involement from the NCAA, IMO.

[Pard4Life]

Spadola's suspension has finally made it to ESPN... it is the #4 story on their college football front page. http://espn.go.com/college-football/ ....

[Doc QB]

Spadola's suspension has finally made it to ESPN... it is the #4 story on their college football front page. http://espn.go.com/college-football/ ....

Read the bottom....Towson's AD was unreachable for comment. Any possibility someone in Baltimore alerted the NCAA? How the heck else would it get there? Changes nothing, but certainly curious.

[Pard4Life]

Does anyone have the original tweet? His account has been disbanded of course, but if I recall, did the tweet not even reference Towson? All I recall is "they" and "Saturday" specifically...

[LehighGuy]

Read the bottom....Towson's AD was unreachable for comment. Any possibility someone in Baltimore alerted the NCAA? How the heck else would it get there? Changes nothing, but certainly curious.


I've confirmed that Towson did alert the NCAA the Monday morning after the loss.

[Pard4Life]

Read the bottom....Towson's AD was unreachable for comment. Any possibility someone in Baltimore alerted the NCAA? How the heck else would it get there? Changes nothing, but certainly curious.

The statement means that he did not yet respond (ie office took a message) or will call them back. It is not the same thing as a "no comment."

[NoDak 4 Ever]

I've confirmed that Towson did alert the NCAA the Monday morning after the loss.


I've further confirmed that Towson invented Twitter so this very thing could happen.

[Engineer86]

Who exactly did RS call the word. I mean specifically, it seems that people are sure he called a black player the word, yet I have never seen any specifics of this. Many of you must have. Or maybe this inconsistency is much easier to swallow because it did not happen to a guy who you know is a class kid on a team you support. One idioms equated this to PSU. Many others know RS was addressing the word to a black guy, don't give me your assumptions, tell me how you know for sure. I saw in another place two guys that assaulted a police office are innocent until proven guilty, yet his supposed crime is saying it to a black guy and the same adage does not hold.

Then I hear it is correct because he was trash talking. That must be it because that NEVER happens and I am sure words like that never are used in trash talking.

Come on guys any way you slice this the NCAA blew this big time.

[LehighGuy]

I've further confirmed that Towson invented Twitter so this very thing could happen.

There's no need to mock me. Like me or not, I've proven to this board that I am not a liar.

[Squealofthepig]

Who exactly did RS call the word. I mean specifically

http://alexglaze.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/photo1.png

Amazed you guys keep asking to have this posted.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

What I find interesting is Ryan used the "N" word then used "Kids" to reference the same group of people. So if this is a racial thing, "kids" carries the same meaning as n****s.

[lehighfball]

The statement means that he did not yet respond (ie office took a message) or will call them back. It is not the same thing as a "no comment."

He's exhausted from his chats with the ncaa.

[Pard4Life]

Mattyfai34 twitter feed no longer exists. But from what I can see on google, the tweets seem to fit a pattern... this was not being racist.. it's two dopes mimicking the gangsta image of today. The powers that be do not understand this. Spadola and others should think that their words have greater weight, especially in a public forum. The NCAA is making this out to be a hate crime.

[LehighGuy]

http://alexglaze.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/photo1.png

Amazed you guys keep asking to have this posted.

The most ironic part is that most of the message is pretty wholesome. "Ignore them. People who talk other people down are insecure about their own talents." (yes, I'm being rosy) Now, he could have use a bit better vernacular to to get this point across. And the racial epithet wasn't necessary.

[Doc QB]

The statement means that he did not yet respond (ie office took a message) or will call them back. It is not the same thing as a "no comment."

Pard, we generally agree on much, but seriously? It smells bad to me, as the whole situation does. If the other post is true, and on MONDAY Towson alerted the NCAA, that does nothing but stink. Stinks like sour grapes.

Maybe I should email Oday at Montana about his two players using the same slur. Oh, yeah, I already did that. Took me all of ten seconds to find their same transgressions. Yet they play on. Level playing field, BS. He singled out one moronic twitter from one athlete and failed to perform any due diligence...a simple investigation lasting all of twenty freakin' seconds would show that the very language Spadola got suspended for is rampant/pervasive/ubiquitous. Period.

[Doc QB]

Mattyfai34 twitter feed no longer exists. But from what I can see on google, the tweets seem to fit a pattern... this was not being racist.. it's two dopes mimicking the gangsta image of today. The powers that be do not understand this. Spadola and others should think that their words have greater weight, especially in a public forum. The NCAA is making this out to be a hate crime.

As I said in previous post, we agree often, Pard.

[Pard4Life]

Pard, we generally agree on much, but seriously? It smells bad to me, as the whole situation does. If the other post is true, and on MONDAY Towson alerted the NCAA, that does nothing but stink. Stinks like sour grapes.

Maybe I should email Oday at Montana about his two players using the same slur. Oh, yeah, I already did that. Took me all of ten seconds to find their same transgressions. Yet they play on. Level playing field, BS. He singled out one moronic twitter from one athlete and failed to perform any due diligence...a simple investigation lasting all of twenty freakin' seconds would show that the very language Spadola got suspended for is rampant/pervasive/ubiquitous. Period.

The Towson connection is curious, but if the AD is dodging intentionally the article would have said no comment or declined to comment. Or the article could state that he has not returned repeated calls for comment. That's also dodging. I don't know of Towson's role, and other players saying the same thing, but were comments by other players (I assume Montana) directed at another team? That is the heart of this issue.

Bottom line is that you should not be tweeting such things, realize what you're saying in a public forum can have greater meaning to others outside your circle, and that such ambiguity exists in today's culture that such phrases have become apart of informal use.

[Pard4Life]

Does anyone have mattyfai34's original post?

[LehighLarry]

It was on the deleted 20 page thread. Has to be somewhere. I think LehighGuy or Lehigh98 posted it on that thread.

[TUTigers]

Does anyone have mattyfai34's original post?

I can paraphrase. Matt Faiella has since deleted his twitter.

Don't quote me cause this is from memory:

"Them Towson niggas be talkin sht about you"

It was something along the lines of that

[Truth.Jones]

I've confirmed that Towson did alert the NCAA the Monday morning after the loss.

The NCAA was aware of this issue on Saturday because the NCAA site rep was present in the media room following the game. The NCAA rep talked to both ADs that night This was the subject of the first question to Cohen after the game, from a member of the media.

Stick to the truth. It tends to work better than making up stuff.

[Twentysix]

You will do nothing about it, can we talk about something else now? Pweez.

[Pard4Life]

Pard, we generally agree on much, but seriously? It smells bad to me, as the whole situation does. If the other post is true, and on MONDAY Towson alerted the NCAA, that does nothing but stink. Stinks like sour grapes.

Maybe I should email Oday at Montana about his two players using the same slur. Oh, yeah, I already did that. Took me all of ten seconds to find their same transgressions. Yet they play on. Level playing field, BS. He singled out one moronic twitter from one athlete and failed to perform any due diligence...a simple investigation lasting all of twenty freakin' seconds would show that the very language Spadola got suspended for is rampant/pervasive/ubiquitous. Period.

Ok, now per the updated article, the AD is dodging it... but if both AD's were aware of it during/following the game on Saturday, the I don't think Towson was out to 'get' Lehigh.

I am curious as to how this even came to the ADs attention on Saturday... it was posted on Friday, about 11 hours before game time. If the ADs were even subscribed to these tweets and he said that... wow... and I have to believe the Morning Crawl writers subscribe to the player twitter feeds.

[Twentysix]

Ok, now per the updated article, the AD is dodging it... but if both AD's were aware of it during/following the game on Saturday, the I don't think Towson was out to 'get' Lehigh.

I am curious as to how this even came to the ADs attention on Saturday... it was posted on Friday, about 11 hours before game time. If the ADs were even subscribed to these tweets and he said that... wow... and I have to believe the Morning Crawl writers subscribe to the player twitter feeds.

Media no doubt follows all players in their area. I would bet some school officials do too.

[LakesBison]

HERES MY TWITTER!!

lakesbison
exactly 1 day from RIGHT NOW, it better be #NDSU 21 #Lehigh 3, Ryan Spagola's twitter account 0
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