A student-athlete has filed a lawsuit against Delaware State University and head football coach DeSean Jackson, a former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, seeking damages after a bloody locker room altercation left him with lifelong injuries.
According to WHYY, the plaintiff is Malachi Biggs, a freshman defensive back. Biggs claims that days before the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship game, a fellow defensive back, Anthony Hebert, “put him in a chokehold and ignored his attempts to ‘tap out.’ Instead, after Biggs lost consciousness, Hebert dropped him to the hard locker room floor.”
That altercation left Biggs with a shattered jaw, severed tongue ligament, damage to a dozen teeth and a severe cut on his chin.
Due to the severity of the damage, the lawsuit claims Biggs has undergone several surgeries and faces years of future treatment. Biggs reported the assault to the university, but did not file criminal charges at that time.
The lawsuit accuses Hebert of battery and reckless and wanton conduct. It also alleges negligence by the university, Jackson, football operations director Jane Hicks and assistant coach Travis Clark, as well as Hebert. It claims the university should have known that the football staff were “unfit and incompetent” and that the staff “created and promoted an unsafe environment in the locker room by permitting and utilizing gang-related language, promoting a violent culture — either overtly or through acts of omission, failing to properly discipline violent player behavior, and allowing dangerous acts of bullying and assault under the guise of ‘horseplay.’”
In a statement, Jackson said,” I take the safety, wellbeing, and development of every student-athlete in the Delaware State University football program seriously. I have never fostered or encouraged hazing, bullying, or any violent environment, and that has never been the culture I have worked to build. Because this matter is the subject to pending litigation, I will not comment further. My focus has always been on creating a positive, respectful place for student-athletes to train, compete, grow, and pursue their college dreams.”
Despite the statement to the contrary, when Jackson became the head coach at Delaware State University last year, he made public comments about creating a winning culture through “physical play” and a “dog mentality.”
From Biggs own experience, he says Jackson instilled a “tough guy” philosophy in the locker room that allowed the assault to occur.
