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 Lil’ Rufio from peeing in the house?
Well, I’m sad to report that Lil’ Rufio was thrown under the bus and simply embarrassed for a tricky bladder that just wasn’t true.
On his podcast, Figure it Out, Fauria comes clean with the true story behind his injury and again it wasn’t Lil’ 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 I’m frickin’ 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, “Joe, you’re not gonna jump. You’re not gonna spike. You’re 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.” […] And, uh, I didn’t hit the ball at all. Stayed on my feet, because I was wearing Jordan 11 Lows. Anyone that doesn’t know that, they’re 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 watch—to play, in Jordan 11 Lows. Anyway, I don’t hit any balls except for, like, one towards the end, barely, and I barely hit it and get a spike against these frickin’ awesome people.
So, second game goes by. I’m not sweating, it was fun, but I get the bug. The “I want to show everybody what I can do” bug, because everyone’s just staring at me and I love when people stare at me. And I’m so tall and hitting the ball hard and I’m so good at sports, I want people to look at me. So I’m like, “Hey, someone set me. Someone set me. Just real quick. I’m not gonna do anything crazy. Just someone set me.” First one: I jump up in my Jordan Lows, approach the net, SMACK. Hit that shit out of the ball. … They liked it. And I was like, “I’mma do this shit again. I’m gonna hit another ball.” So I take another approach, get the set, jump up, [smacking sound] … And I hit the ball, 10-foot line, fuck yeah, everyone’s cheering. But when I come down, I come down on just ankle. Left ankle. Like, this most amazing, shocking pain that I’ve never felt in my entire life shoots up my leg, and immediately, I’m like, “Career’s over.” First thing I thought. “Season’s over. Career’s over.” That’s 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 wasn’t 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 by—I don’t 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. It’s Week 3. You get paid in increments. You get paid each week. They stop paying me now, that’s not good. I want that money. So, that’s why I lied.
Unfortunately, Lil’Rufio’s fate as a house pisser was sealed…
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
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 29, 2014
After his Lions career came to an end, Fauria was a member of the Cardinals and Patriots‘ practices squads before ultimately being out of football after the 2015 season.
