Taylor Lewan Under Investigation For Assault
AnnArbor.com/MLive have confirmed yesterday's report by Bucknuts.com that Taylor Lewan is under investigation by the Ann Arbor Police Department for his possible role in a fight outside the Brown Jug the evening of the Ohio State game. While they're not going as far as the Bucknuts story, it looks like this might have some legs.
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2013/12/police_investigat…
Police confirmed Lewan, a projected NFL first-round draft pick, was in the area of a fight involving Ohio State University fans about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 1 in the 1200 block of South University Avenue, but his level of involvement had not been determined as of Dec. 23.
Lewan has not been arrested and no charges have been filed in the incident. Police confirmed an investigation is taking place into the incident, but would not confirm any further details into the incident.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^
You have many in the MGoBlogosphere crapping on the team re toughness but apparently Lewan's nastiness fits outside your definition of football morality?
Srsly. Give me 85 players with Lewan's attitude.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
Twisting facemasks shouldn't fit in anyone's definition of football morality.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
Nasty wins you games. God help you watch hockey.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:55 PM ^
There is a difference between playing hard/nasty/aggressive and playing dirty. I think intentionally twisting an opponent's facemask is dirty. If you are defending that type of behavior then I think you need to rethink your priorities.
December 24th, 2013 at 1:33 PM ^
I think that football is a tough, nasty and sometimes dirty game where emotions get involved. I think that self-righteousness is a bit too easy for us, as a fanbased, at times. It's really easy to moralize when your record against your Little Brother is 1-1 in the last 2, but 5-5 in the last 10.
There have been two memes related to the Sparty games over the past five years:
a) Michigan owned a higher 'moral' ground (here looking at you Tom Gholston et al.) and because Coach Mark Dantonio is generally regarded as a jackass. the whole 60 minutes of unneccessary roughness thing.
b) Michigan appaently got physically dominated by the Spartan teams in 4 of the past 5 matchups. More than that, however, seems to be the meme that they got beat on toughness, nastiness and will to win.
These two things seem opposed and we have a fanbase that wants a team of monster ass kickers but who are just really good fellows.
There is a line that sometime gets crossed and will get crossed by tough teams and players with a nasty streak. I don't know that you can turn that off any more for Lewan than Red Wings apologists take up for Bertuzzi.
December 24th, 2013 at 8:28 PM ^
...he twisted the opponent's facemask on purpose, and that's fucking bullshit...end of story. No excuses, no matter WHAT color the jersey is.
December 25th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^
Why are you comparing college football to pro hockey?
Why not Boxing or MMA or NASCAR?
They're different sports, find another comparison to make your awful point.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:41 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 9:51 AM ^
into bar fights as long as there have been bars and football players. If the internet had existed back when the drinking age was 18, Bo's hat would have had more flying lessons. Lewan is a young football player, not a candidate for sainthood.
December 24th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 11:43 AM ^
..it should be obivous by now that the kid is a bit of a thug.
And maybe it's just me, but the sketchist part of the Buckeye fans story is that Lewan just walked up & punched. I'd imagine that getting clocked in the face by someone that large would put you out cold for awhile.
December 24th, 2013 at 1:30 PM ^
I don't know about him as a thug. Lewan is a big guy and a football player, which means he is coached to be aggressive and tough. He is also admittadly emotional, which has lead to some questionable acts on the field. Mix in alcohol after an emotional loss and getting harassed by other guys about it and you have a problem waiting to happen. That doesn't mean he should let his emotions get the better of him. I also don't think it makes him a thug. I don't know the guys involved and how many it was versus how many people were with Lewan. It would be hard to rationalize a big guy like Lewan punching a normal sized person unless his words were extremely bad. But, punching a guy that talks sh*t to you is hardly being a thug. Being a thug is more like sucker punching a guy, beating him while he's down, using a weapon, etc. Punching a guy that's talking sh*t is just a run of the mill bar fight. Tough guy nonsense...yes, thug...no IMO.
December 24th, 2013 at 3:36 PM ^
Assuming the guy was an ass, I'd believe it. Lewan has a long history of donkey punching.
December 24th, 2013 at 3:48 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^
His alleged quotes from the police report from the Gibbons incident were pretty ugly, too. That whole thing makes me feel not good.
December 25th, 2013 at 6:27 PM ^
I'm not sure they are even "alleged," as they are taken from the police report that redacts his name, no? Yeah, I'm in the same boat. After I read the stuff surrounding that case, I've had a hard time rooting as fully for Lewan as I did before. The quotes in the police report are pretty god-awful and made me think he's an entitled, bullying prick.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a quote in the police report, made by Lewan, to the alleged victim: "If [alleged victim] does (press charges) then I'm going to rape [alleged victim], because [Gibbons] didnt." Yeah. Asshole thing to say, to say the least, to someone who may ore may not have been raped by your friend. If you want the redacted part that mentions Lewan, here you go: http://www.washtenawwatchdogs.com/um-police-report.html
December 24th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 9:35 AM ^
Bucknuts is going to hit us with "investigative journalism" and no one is going to really dig under the rock of all the shadiness that happened during the Tressel-era?
We are way too passive in this rivalry. I'll bet there are violations galore from Tressel's time that could still stick and are out there to be found with some halfway decent investigative reporting.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:43 AM ^
Shit. Happens. Everywyere. Thinking that institutional violations just happened at OSU is really naive. Ann Arbor has rocks too.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:54 AM ^
but all the more reason they should just let it lie as well. Your argument can go both ways. We do a pretty good job on this blog not to go too far into the weeds on stuff that is reported on their program....usually.
I agree with the previous poster who said we are too passive in this rivalry. I'm not suggesting sinking to their level at all, but nothing wrong with being aggressive.
December 24th, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^
Reading this comment makes me think of this same story as reported by the Columbus Dispatch (HERE), which gives the name of the person making the accusation, mentions Lewan specifically as the person who is being accused of assault and sources Bucknuts. Nowhere in here is there a mention of the comments made by the police Feldscher's piece, which mentions that no charges have been filed and that Lewan was in the vicinity and that the level of involvement is undetermined as yet.
Investigative reporting is fine, but it seems the Dispatch was writing to try and get a reaction and that's what I would think we could all do well to avoid. The contrast in these stories sort of illustrates your point, I would think.
December 24th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
..."the Little Brown Jug restaurant..." Oh well. I won't blame the Dispatch. Bucknuts initiated that error. What we all need to understand is that they are really trying, and that most of the time, they will get most of the facts mostly right.
December 24th, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
It's funny, I never really thought about it until you mentioned it. It's "The Jug" or "The Brown Jug." I've never once made the mistake of throwing "Little" in there, which kind of surprises me.
December 24th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
Whatever you want to call it, all I know is I could go for a slice or five of Backroom pizza after looking at that picture.
December 24th, 2013 at 11:30 AM ^
I grabbed a slice after the Stanford game. Be jealous.
December 24th, 2013 at 1:01 PM ^
that and the BTB in the far background.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:41 AM ^
My guess is that tripped over fence = kicked fence. My guess is also that there were OSU fans mocking and annoying Taylor and friends all night. Perhaps not these exact fans, but OSU fans nonetheless. When they kicked the fence, those OSU fans became saddled with what all OSU fans had done. And so a few paid the price for all. Shit happens.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 9:43 AM ^
Show me a guy who wants to fight OSU fans and I'll show you my starting left tackle.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:48 AM ^
Show me a guy who will turn around and walk away instead of throwing a punch and I'll show you how a senior team captain and NFL draft hopeful should act.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
Uhh, how about the fact that he has a future riding on not being a moron? It's in his best interest to do so just like it's in my best interest to not have an arrest record when applying for jobs.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:38 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:55 PM ^
This really made me laugh! Do you even know what the NFL is and what the players are like? A bar fight and an arrest record is the standard to make the 52 man roster.
December 24th, 2013 at 12:59 PM ^
"He's human and a man just like the rest us."
...and the rest of would get charged with assault for punching someone for a verbal altercation.
December 24th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 1:02 PM ^
Um, you walk away because you're not a child on a playground and haven't been for a long time.
December 24th, 2013 at 2:08 PM ^
And the rest of us are supposed to walk away, too. Idiot.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:53 PM ^
I love how everyone is ripping on him for getting in a fight when somebody was giving him shit. How quickly we forget about a month ago, when everyone in the media and NFL was calling Jonathon Martin a pussy for not standing up to Incognito and fighting him.
December 24th, 2013 at 9:50 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:14 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:14 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^
December 24th, 2013 at 9:19 PM ^
my nuts
December 24th, 2013 at 9:55 AM ^
Times sure do change. When I was in college I was a bouncer at the old Village Bell and bar fights on some level were a pretty regular occurance most weekends. Based on that experience plus 35 years of going to bars, here is what I predict probably happened:
1. Drunk OSU fans, giddy over their last second win, celebrate too long and too loudly at the Brown Derby.
2. Drunk OSU fans spot Lewan and start giving him shit at the bar.
3. Taylor, probably drunk himself and obviously pissed at the outcome of the game is in no mood to hear shit from drunken OSU fans at a bar at his school and tells them to shut the fuck up.
4. Drunk OSU fans, being drunk, don't shut up emboldened by both their drunkeness and their buddies.
5. Lewan, being large, strong and pissed kicks shit out of loud, obnoxious, OSU fan or fans.
6. OSU fan or fans, being pussy's, run to hospital first to get their diagnosis of "assult" (read the hospital report - it's pretty amusing) and then the police.
7. OSU fans being not only pussy's but opportunistic pussy's, see opportunity for large civil suit against famous soon to be reach MIchigan football player and lawyer up.
December 24th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
I'm always surprised at some of the comments about how a 22 year old "should" act...as if live is a zero tolerance existence. I'm in the camp that if Lewan "assaulted" a kid, that kid would surely know it. If Lewan did, he will face appropriate punitive actions.
December 24th, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
with the word "should" is that it isn't grounded in reality. And only those who were there will know what DID happen, not what should have happened.