Spadola's status for playoff game in jeopardy

FROM KEITH GROLLER

As of early Thursday afternoon, the playing status of Lehigh's record-breaking junior wide receiver Ryan Spadola for Saturday's FCS playoff game against North Dakota State was uncertain. Rumors are circulating that Spadola will be suspended for the game.

This all stems from a tweet that contained a racial slur, and reportedly, the NCAA is looking into the matter.

Coen declined comment on Wednesday during his weekly gathering with the press and a Lehigh spokesperson had no comment on the matter on Thursday, but said there was the possibility of an announcement later.

Spadola, evidently, was the player involved in a tweet that used a racial slur in referring to Towson's team before last Saturday's game. The racial slur was sent in a tweet to Spadola from one of Spadola's former high school teammates and he re-tweeted it.

Lehigh coach Andy 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 repsonse 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.”

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/