Hey guys, guess what! A football player got injured riding a scooter. HAHAHA! That's funny, right? Why would a 300-pound man waste his time riding a motorized scooter? Let's make fun of this, because everyone
That, or some form of that, was probably racing through the heads of the editors of The Diamondback, Maryland's student newspaper, when they published this cartoon. The cartoon pokes fun at Maryland offensive lineman Pete DeSouza, who suffered two fractured legs when a car ran into him while he rode a motorized scooter. A co-ed is depicted asking a football player dressed in full pads why he's doing that when there isn't a game. The player replied that he's "afraid to hurt himself on his scooter."
Nyuck nyuck nyuck, right? Not according to the Maryland players and coaches. When they saw the cartoon, all of them wondered why the heck anyone would poke fun at that incident. They all came down hard on the cartoon today after practice.
Coach Ralph Friedgen called the cartoon "insensitive," but that was about as tame a response as you got today. Linebacker Alex Wujciak said it was a "messed-up thing to do." Safety Kenny Tate said "I just couldn't even comment after seeing it." Left tackle R.J. Dill said it was "upsetting" and "an insensitive cartoon, that's the bottom line," all after saying he didn't "want to get into a trash [talking] contest with the Diamondback."
Is the cartoon insensitive? Yeah, probably. But here's the bigger issue: it's not funny. If you're going to be edgy and toe the line like this, at least make people laugh. Instead, the Maryland players are angry ... and they have a point.
(HT to Patrick Stevens and Jeff Barker for this item).