Lewan's ex says he did in fact punch OSU fan
Whatever happened, I hope Taylor learned a lesson after a childish dispute and grows from it.
http://pro32.ap.org/article/lewans-ex-girlfriend-says-he-punched-ohio-s…
if Taylor was provoked or not, if he lied or not, if Dileo's sister lied or not, if Taylor is a good guy or a jerk, or whether the team would have been better if he had gone pro a year ago because of "chemistry" issues. What I do know from years of representing the media is that stories get sensationalized with distressing frequency, that news reports in even the best media publications are sometimes sloppy and are almost always written based on the POV of the reporter, that police have major biases too, and that you never really know for sure what happened in most cases, but that you have a much higher level of confidence in the truth after a trial where people are subjected to cross examination. So I am inclined to wait before reaching any judgment about Taylor's actions in this matter.
regarding Lewan?
That young man has some serious issues.
I met him in person, and granted in a public context where he'd be on good behavior, but I can't square the Talor-is-nothing-but-a-no-good-thug-with-serious-issues judgement with the person I met, have seen in the press, and who Brady Hoke talks about like a proud father.
We expect these guys to be trained up to do battle and put them on a pedastal, and then shit on them when the job slips out in stressful public circumstances. The fact that he shoved the guy (which is effectively what linemen do to protect the quarterback), and the guy felt hurt enough to go to the hospital - should not surpise anyone.
Then there is this: you were shoved to the ground by a future 1st round draft pick. Is this an opportunity?
I am not blinded. I don't see Lewan as the perfect shining knight in armour everyone expects a Michigan Man to be (which is mostly unrealistic). I am not even on the fence, I think Taylor Lewan is generally the good guy we thought he was, who has made some youthful mistakes.
This was a minor bar fight - not a Philip Nelson situation. End of story.
Ignoring that we have NO IDEA, if your assertion about what actually occurred, is in fact what actually occurred...His conduct in the aftermath of the Gibbons fiasco should have just about sealed the deal for most reasonable parties, imo.
Maybe I am naive, but I met the guy, and my impression of him doesn't square with Mr. Hyde, so I give him the benefit of the doubt.
I understand your opinion, have considered it since the Gibbons thing is disturbing. Your opinion is equally as reasonable though.
Good?
Good riddance to Lewan. In 5 years, he never matured. He was a punk as a RS freshman, he remains one today.
Taylor's regrettable actions aside, I'm amused by how many people are engaging in wishful thinking about the offensive line last year, as in "Well, Taylor was probably a lousy leader and that's why they couldn't block anyone."
I haven't seen anything that obvious, but the feeling seems to be common.
Aside, here's Drew's sister on the WWW: http://gamedaygrits.wordpress.com/
it doesn't much matter, given that it's straight-up hearsay and not admissable evidence in court (that is, Lewan's purported statement on the phone to his mother).
On the public opinion side, admissable and not good. Ex or no ex, she's probably recalling it accurately. It's not hard to imagine a drunk OSU fan wanting to prove his toughness by starting an altercation with a Michigan player, and it's not hard to imagine Lewan (a) not being able to control himself, especially after the high emotion of the bitter loss (b) knocking a dude out and (c) bragging about (b) to his mom over the phone in the presence of his girlfriend.
If so, it's an Admission by a Party Opponent, and her (Dileo's) testimony of what she heard is therefore admissible.
Absolutely agree, though one should acknowledge that the court must also determine the veracity of the speaker and weigh the merits of that statement. Also, if her statement is that Lewan said he told his mom he knocked a guy out and that is not in dispute by Lewan (I've not read the report, so I'm not sure if that is the case), I'm not sure what is in dispute here. But again, I'd like to see this report at some point.
Phillip Nelson says hello.
so punching a guy during an altercation = kicking an already unconscience guy in the head?
When the puncher is drunk, angry and a dude like Lewan the risk of serious problems or escalation isn't exactly remote.
An admission that you have nothing to say.
Yes, if someone belongs to a group you disagree with, violence is permissible. GO BLUE>.>>WE"RE THE BEST THE VICTORS!11!
Lots of fights on campus? With guys 6'7" 310 lbs and in excellent condition? Yeah, right.
I think you've been watching too much TV.
In the 4.5 years I spent at Michigan, I saw exactly 1 guy get punched in the head. It happened at a rec center during a basketball game and it let to a police report being filed and the puncher being banned from the rec facility.
Do drunk guys get into scuffles at parties probably pretty much every weekend? Sure. Are there guys getting cold-cocked knocked out all the time from uppercuts to the face? I don't think so. A punch to the head that knocks someout out like that could be considered assault, and laughing it away as "boys will be boys" is IMO rather severly understating the severity of the situation.
I realize that AA isn't exactly a large city, but i doubt you could be everywhere at once in your 4.5 years at Michigan.
that I was everywhere. I said the idea that guys knocking other guys out in massive drunken fights in college wasn't some kind of weekly occurrance. Writing this off as "boys will be boys" is kind of lame, especially for a guy who was a co-captain of the Michigan football team.
I can remember watching, and taking part in, a series of fights outside of a house on S. State (it was awesome)...
I don't remember too many random fights but they did happen.
Now, if you want to talk about trips to Ypsilanti, then you can talk about a lot of freaking fights...
jdon
I saw more than 1 fight. I said I only saw 1 fight where a guy just cold-cocked someone else in the head. And that one ended up with the police involved and the guy kicked out of the rec centers probably permanently. The rest were really more scrums than fights. i'm sure scrums are pretty common. I don't think guys getting knocked out are.
It sucks for Coach Hoke who basically came out before the draft and said that he would "stake his reputation on Lewan"....
Lewan is an idiot... but he will make a great NFL tackle because he is a thug at heart.
#seeya
knocking somebody out? just becasue he was the (apparent) winner of a dispute doesn't make him the bad guy. otherwise some of us would've been in hot water any number of times.
And I'm sure the tough testosteronie crowd on here will agree -- among men, that is!
I'd like to see Lewan go after a competitive heavyweight boxer. Take a shot at him. THEN I'll be impressed by Lewan's toughness.
is that at some point the other guy is disabled. to me that meant they were usually knocked out. we are all able to use reasonable self defense for ourselves or in the defense of others. reasonable self defense includes knocking out our adversary in many such scenarios. no law is broken by being the winner of a fight as long as the force used was reasonable.
and you have a funny picture to be questioning the use of force...
I also doubt that the Ohio fan was just an innocent bystander. My guess is that he was taunting Lewan and doing what Ohio fans do. You're telling me that there was only 1 Ohio fan at the bar out of all the Ohio fans that were at that game. If that was the case then he was asking for it.
What did he do on the field that was bad?
He was a two time All-American....I guess people are just upset that The Team sucks and they feel the need to make excuses. The guy was an awesome player, went in the 1st round of the draft, was by all accounts a great team leader, and a likeable guy (unless you are an OSU fan or a MSU Spartan D-Lineman).
his head coach?
http://www.freep.com/article/20140508/SPORTS06/305080146/taylor-lewan-m…
“There’s no question,” Hoke said. “With Taylor, he was a great leader for us, came back for a fifth year where he really didn’t need to do that. Would have been, maybe, the first pick a year ago in the draft. But wanted to come back, help a young offensive line develop and wanted to win a championship at Michigan. Guys make mistakes sometime during their career, but the one thing about Taylor off the field: He was great, as far as we were concerned, in how he handled himself.”
I'll take Lewan's leadership over your dumb *** any time.
And again, any evidence to back this claim? You have no actual evidence other than your opinion. You probably say he was "the worst captain ever" because our team wasn't good and you are looking for an excuse.
I said he was an awesome player (backed by the All-American performances he displayed), he was a first round pick (he was), and that by all accounts he has great character and was a leader (backed by his head coach multiple times http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/05/brady_hoke_defends_ta… // http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/05/brady_hoke_defends_ta… )
You could say he was a big baby, but personally, I'd rather have a captain who gets pissed and assults someone during a loss than a captain who doesn't seem to care.
And I'm not sure what you mean by smoke.
Honest question - has anyone read this police report here? I've not been able to find a copy, and based on what I could gather from the AP report it's basically Taylor Lewan telling his mother at brunch that he knocked a guy out (which he's seemingly never argued against) and his ex girlfriend apparently saying he's lying because she either saw (or was told that) Lewan knocked the guy down and punched him instead of breaking up a fight? To me, and again I don't have the report in front of me, but this reads like a difference of interpretation. Taylor Lewan is a huge guy, and him breaking up a fight/altercation with a drunk OSU fan is going to look quite a bit different than if little 170lb me tries to break up a fight. He may very well have broke up a fight; that might have just looked like a beating if he pushed down a guy significantly smaller than him.
Again, I'm not defending Lewan - he seems like a hothead, and there's enough smoke around him that he's earned the well-deserved reputation for being a bit of a jerk. That said, people are acting like a 22-year-old kid getting into a fight is some atypical event, and that football players should be held to a higher standard despite ample evidence that stuff like this happens all the time and the only reason we don't hear about it is that most times the police don't get involved. I want to see this report for myself and see how the court determines its authenticity; let's all remember that there are official court documents alleging Manziel tried to have a threesome with a woman and Dr. Drew after sending her pictures of his junk in a hot dog bun. Just because someone said it doesn't mean it is the truth.
Oh well. I'm glad he's gone, but at the same time I can't say I care too much about this incident. Considering the way Ohio State fans treat visitors, I hope it hurt like hell.
well that's that.. someone said that he did it. he punched someone. we better get started on removing anything to do with taylor lewan from the university's history, and ban him from assosiating with UM Athletics. quick before the protests start, and the NCAA puts a 5 year bowl ban on the program.
I've punched my clown lots of timess.
Oh not what we're talkiing about.