Remember former Lions tight end Joe Fauria? The guy who made a little bit of a name for himself with his creative touchdown dances. And the guy who injured himself on an off-day when he tripped on some stairs trying to prevent his three-month old Pomsky Lilโ Rufio from peeing in the house?
Well, Iโm sad to report that Lilโ Rufio was thrown under the bus and simply embarrassed for a tricky bladder that just wasnโt true.
On his podcast, Figure it Out, Fauria comes clean with the true story behind his injury and again it wasnโt Lilโ Rufio. It was Fauria who hurt himself playing a game of indoor volleyball with some friends.
Transcript via Deadspin:
We get to the game. I watch their first game, and my competitive spirit rises. Duh. Because Iโm frickinโ competitive, and I want everyone to see me spike the ball. So what do I do? I jump in the game. But I tell myself, โJoe, youโre not gonna jump. Youโre not gonna spike. Youโre gonna stay in the back and just help them out, show them your awesome passing skills with your super-large hands that are great at passing.โ [โฆ] And, uh, I didnโt hit the ball at all. Stayed on my feet, because I was wearing Jordan 11 Lows. Anyone that doesnโt know that, theyโre below my ankle, and I already have a history of bad ankles, having twisted my ankles my entire life, but I showed up to a volleyball game to watchโto play, in Jordan 11 Lows. Anyway, I donโt hit any balls except for, like, one towards the end, barely, and I barely hit it and get a spike against these frickinโ awesome people.
So, second game goes by. Iโm not sweating, it was fun, but I get the bug. The โI want to show everybody what I can doโ bug, because everyoneโs just staring at me and I love when people stare at me. And Iโm so tall and hitting the ball hard and Iโm so good at sports, I want people to look at me. So Iโm like, โHey, someone set me. Someone set me. Just real quick. Iโm not gonna do anything crazy. Just someone set me.โ First one: I jump up in my Jordan Lows, approach the net, SMACK. Hit that shit out of the ball. โฆ They liked it. And I was like, โIโmma do this shit again. Iโm gonna hit another ball.โ So I take another approach, get the set, jump up, [smacking sound] โฆ And I hit the ball, 10-foot line, fuck yeah, everyoneโs cheering. But when I come down, I come down on just ankle. Left ankle. Like, this most amazing, shocking pain that Iโve never felt in my entire life shoots up my leg, and immediately, Iโm like, โCareerโs over.โ First thing I thought. โSeasonโs over. Careerโs over.โ Thatโs how much it hurt.
Curious on how to cover for a stupid injury, Fauria consulted with Lions punter Sam Martin who had his own history on what to do with dumb injuries because apparently DeAndre Levy wasnโt available. Plus this was dire since there was a possible issue loss of earnings from his contract if the Lions found out.
Head coach walks in, Jim Caldwell. He asks me what happened. I lied. Why did I lie? Was it because I started the lie at the hospital? That I want to lie to my head coach? No, but I was thinking about myself. In my mind, I had to think about myself at that point. Because, I was told byโI donโt know who told me at the time, someone whose opinion or word I valued a lot. Call it an agent, call it a friend, call it whatever you want. They told me that if the team, the organization, the Lions found out I was playing volleyball and I got hurt playing volleyball, that they could exercise the option of not paying me. Okay. Itโs Week 3. You get paid in increments. You get paid each week. They stop paying me now, thatโs not good. I want that money. So, thatโs why I lied.
Unfortunately, LilโRufioโs fate as a house pisser was sealedโฆ
Joe Fauria said he sprained his ankle after missing bottom two stairs while trying to stop his 3-month old dog from urinating in the house
โ Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 29, 2014
After his Lions career came to an end, Fauria was a member of the Cardinals and Patriotsโ practices squads before ultimately being out of football after the 2015 season.
