Lehigh's Spadola has been suspended for Saturday's playoff game; he apologizes for his mistake

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Lehigh's record-breaking junior wide receiver Ryan Spadola has been suspended for the team's FCS playoff game against North Dakota State on Saturday.

The suspension comes as a result of a tweet from his Twitter account last week that included a racial slur.

Spadola did not author the initial tweet containing the racial slur, but re-tweeted it.

The tweet was in the context of pregame banter about Towson, Lehigh's opponent last week in the NCAA FCS playoffs. Spadola was instrumental in the Mountain Hawks' 40-38 win over Towson, catching 13 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed four times for 26 yards.

In a statement released by Lehigh Sports Information late Thursday afternoon, Spadola said: "To my competitors, teammates and to everyone else who has seen the tweet I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness for my unwise behavior. At the time I received and forwarded the tweet, I didn't stop to think about how this could be offensive. In hindsight, I recognize that it was clearly inappropriate. I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity. Everyone who knows me knows that to be true."

Spadola, who was just named an AFCA All-American on Wednesday night, has caught 96 passes for 1,614 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2011. He has set a school record for receptions in a single and new Lehigh and Patriot League records in receiving yards.

Had he played against NDSU, Spadola might have set the FCS single-season record. He is just 98 yards away from the FCS single-season rmark of 1,712 set by Delaware’s Eddie Conti in 1998.

The tweet issue came to light before last Saturday's playoff game at Towson.

In a statement by Lehigh athletic director Joe Sterett: "A Lehigh student-athlete who used a slang racial epithet in a social media exchange late last week has been suspended by the NCAA FCS Championships Committee for Saturday’s NCAA Football Quarterfinal."

Sterett added the NCAA decision: "Delivers a clear message that this is not acceptable behavior within college athletics."

Sterrett said that at the time the incident was discovered: "The student made a series of apologies and Lehigh imposed an obligation to conduct a series of campus discussions around the topics of derogatory racial language and its impact. The decision to suspend participation for the game this week results from the adverse impact on the FCS championship caused by the message.

"The poor judgment by our student in responding to an inflammatory message by using the same inappropriate language served to disaffect the FCS Championship."

Sterrett said that Lehigh would make "this unfortunate episode is a valuable learning experience. This has been a very difficult experience for an individual who is a very strong student, and has been a productive athlete and a respected member of our football program."

Sterrett continued: "In speaking with [head coach Andy Coen] we both believe that coaches are educators with a responsibility to do waht we can to help our student-athletes grow, not just as athletes, but as people. The incident has been an incredible learning experience for us.

"I believe it is our responsibility to help students understand that this language is unaccpetable, whether the medium is a social posting, casual conversation or within the confines of a song."

Coen was asked about the tweet in his postgame press conference on Saturday, although he did not reveal the player involved.

Coen's response was: "I was notified [before the game] that there was one instance about inappropriate language being used in one tweet and that was discussed with the player. It’s about education. He’ll address that with our whole football team and athletic department when we get back to campus. I did not think that it did not warrant him not playing.”

On Sunday, Coen elaborated on his response in a commentary posted on the Lehigh sports website:

“Regrettably, one of our student-athletes received late last week a twitter message from a former high school teammate that used an inappropriate and repugnant racial reference to describe Towson team members and their intentions regarding the game with Lehigh. Our student-athlete initiated his response to this message by quoting the inappropriate reference. The use of this racially insensitive characterization is unacceptable and inconsistent with the values and expectations of our Lehigh community and football program. . While the inappropriate language did not originate with our student-athlete, when he reused the words, he made them his.

In responding, our student-athlete suggested essentially that such talk was a sign of weakness and our team planned to make it a long day for Towson on the field. Engaging in any kind of digital sparring via social media violates the Athletics Department social media policy and will result in sanctions for the student-athlete that include making educational presentations to other teams about appropriate use of social media, as well as arranging for and leading team discussions with each of our sports about the University’s Principles of an Equitable Community. I addressed the matter directly with the student-athlete on Saturday morning as soon as I learned about it. It is always our obligation to use our experiences as learning opportunities and accordingly, this episode was shared with the full team on Sunday.

The student-athlete posted an apology using the same social medium used in the original exchange and he shared with our team today that he used poor judgment and unacceptable insensitivity in the way he responded to the message. He also stood before his teammates and apologized to them and to the coaching staff and the University.

The education of our student-athletes in every way that we can have a constructive impact on their learning will continue to be a central goal of our football program and department.”

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