Lions center Dominic Raiola is no stranger when it comes to getting into spats with fans and spectators. This was seen back during the horrendous 0-16 season in 2008 when Raiola gave the fans the bird and again in 2009 when defending quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The latest incident though comes this past Sunday when Raiola allegedly verbally abused members of the Wisconsin band (who usually play at home Packers games at least once a season) prior to the National Anthem.
Zack York (one of the band members) wrote the following on his Facebook page recounting what happened with Raiola:
Dominic Raiola is literally the worst person I have ever had the fortune to encounter. After marching down the field awaiting the national anthem, He went off on a verbal tirade, among other things, questioning my sexuality (as a band member) and then continued on to bring my sister and my recently deceased mother into the conversation. After I refused to give him the satisfaction of turning to look at him, he switched targets to a trombone ranting at him calling him overweight and saying he can’t play a real sport. After our halftime show, the same fine gentleman called a female member of the band the “c” word.
In addition to this, another member of the band is also claiming that Raiola continued to hurl homophobic slurs while mentioning to one band member that “he [Raiola] was going to take his trumpet and shove it up his sister’s p***y”
Lions statement on Raiola: “Those reports are extremely inconsistent with the standard of behavior we expect from our players."
— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) October 7, 2013
More from Lions: “We currently are gathering more information and will respond further when appropriate.”
— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) October 7, 2013
Obviously these are some very disturbing claims being made and if true some sort of discipline needs to be enforced by the Lions. Sticking up for your teammates is one thing but going out of your way to hurl extremely abusive insults to fans and spectators is totally unacceptable and certainly extremely embarrassing to the entire Lions organization.
According to The Big Lead, Lions safety Louis Delmas reportedly apologized for Raiola’s comments.