Written by James Ryan
The following letter is in response to Rashad Evans’ recent comments to fellow UFC fighter and Penn State alumnus, Phil Davis. What was said?
“I guarantee you gonna be the first one to take a shot, cause I’m gonna put those hands on you worse than that dude did to them other kids at Penn State.”
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Dear Rashad,
You went to University, right? I was thinking Buffalo because of a statement that you had made when I interviewed you last year at Raging Wolf, but your Wikipedia page says that you went to Niagara County Community College in Niagara Falls, NY.
Either way…I’m curious to know…how would you feel if one of the coaches at your College, a national coaching hero and creator of one of the biggest and best charities for helping disadvantaged and “at-risk” youth (with over 100,000 kids having gone through and been helped by the organization via the entire community since 1977) was suddenly accused of child molestation? Would you hope that others would make light of it?
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How would that make you feel, knowing that a coach at your College was being accused of one of the most evil and heinous crimes that a human being is actually capable of? For real…how would it make you feel? As a father of three children, what would your reaction be if it was one of your own kids that had been taken advantage of by such a powerful public figure?
Would you feel nothing from it? Would you be completely numb to the fact that something like this not only has a tremendous effect of the alleged victims of the crime, but on the entire community (country…world…) as well?
Now, I know that Jerry Sandusky wasn’t a direct coach of Penn State wrestler, Phil Davis, but can you imagine the effect on the entire community that something like this would have? These recent events are nothing short of an unspeakable embarrassment. But again, do you care?
Your comment didn’t just cut Davis (and yes it did, despite his good natured ability to laugh it off because that’s what genuinely nice people do (completely different from Dana White’s laughing reaction by the way, who clearly thought you were being funny), but it managed to cut down everyone else that has somehow been affected by this historic tragedy. And yes, that’s a LOT of people. And yes, you just spit in their faces.
And all for the sake of “hyping a fight.” What a load of crap.
Empathy can be a wonderful thing, Rashad. I strongly suggest that you give it a try before you totally lose sight of who you once were. Assuming of course that you haven’t always been a total, arrogant prick.
Best of luck in your fight against Davis. If the mindset of a warrior means anything, you’re gonna need it.
James Ryan
The Sportstender Visits Penn State University and MMA Fighter Eric Bradley
As one of Rashad’s oldest supporters – both in length of time supporting him, and in age (I’m 53) – allow me to apologize for this unfortunate situation, and while not attempting to make excuses for it, at least try to explain it.
Rashad began to change fundamentally after he was knocked out by Lyoto Machida at UFC 98; this was confirmed by Greg Jackson’s partner, Mike Winklejohn, in an interview he gave immediately after Rashad departed from Jackson’s camp. Up to that point, Rashad had never engaged in so-called trash talk in an effort to “hype a fight” – he was nothing but respectful in the run-up to the Machida fight, and when he fought Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin prior to that. Then, of course, within days after Rashad’s loss at UFC 98, Jon Jones arrived at Jackson’s, and by the sound of it, Jones was immediately groomed by Jackson and his staff to be their “meal ticket” so to speak at light heavyweight. All of this put a great deal of emotional strain on Rashad, the result of which we all saw this past March when the inevitable blow-up finally occurred.
I also see Rashad’s insistence of fighting at light heavyweight – rather than middleweight, which is clearly a far more suitable weight class for him – as a definite factor in why he feels he needs to get inside his opponents’ heads so to speak.
And casting any moral objections to what Rashad said aside for the moment, this sort of thing is, more often than not, counterproductive: Just recently, in the NFL, there was the example of New York Giants free safety Antrel Rolle declaring that the Giants would beat the Washington Redskins “99 times out of 100.” Well look what happened: The Giants, in the heat of a battle for the championship of their division, decisively lost a game at home to the non-contending Redskins they were heavily favored to win, after which Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman cited Rolle’s incendiary comment as having motivated his team in the game.
99 times out of 100? The Redskins have now beaten the Giants 2 times in their last 2 games, having also defeated them in the season opener.
It has been said that experience is an expensive school, yet fools will learn in no other. What will happen in Chicago on January 28 may very well prove to vindicate that maxim; and if it does, I trust that Rashad will learn from it, and strive to become a better person as a result. Who knows, it may even lead to him going down to middleweight as well.
Great comment. Thank you for taking the time to leave it. I do wish Rashad all the best, but as you can tell, I’m quite disappointed in him at the moment. But like you say, hopefully Rashad will learn from this experience and we can all move on. Cheers!