http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.s...layers_recount_paddling_initiations_in_1.html
According to several former players, the sexual hazing revealed this week that allegedly occurred at Sayreville High School is not the only hazing that may have happened under coach George Najjar.
When contacted by NJ Advance Media,
former athletes who played for Najjar while he was the head coach at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn in the 1980s recounted initiation rituals during preseason camp that included Animal House-style paddling of underclassmen by upperclassmen.
Najjar, in his 20th season at Sayreville, repeatedly has declined comment on the hazing allegations when reached by phone or at his home.
NJ Advance Media spoke with eight former football players who were coached by Najjar during his previous tenure as Abraham Lincoln High in Brooklyn —
players who all voiced support for their former coach.
Several of Najjar’s former Lincoln players
described the paddling as a relatively harmless football tradition that they did not believe Najjar knew about.
The initiations occurred “since the dawn of time, from what I understood,” former Lincoln player Chris Grayson said. “I got my paddle, I gave my paddle and that was it. We were family.”
Added Grayson: “
It was a tradition thing.”
William Spinelli, another Lincoln football player who graduated in 1987, said he was saved from a paddling by the coach. He recalled a vivid scene of his tearful camp initiation, which he said was stopped by Najjar right before Spinelli was going to be paddled.
“Coach Najjar came in there and I was the last one,” Spinelli said. “They saved me for last for some reason. He actually stopped it and didn’t let it go on, and I’ll never forget that. I was in tears because I was afraid, and he actually stopped it and didn’t let it happen… he took us all on the field to run [as discipline] because of what was going on.”
Other former Lincoln players denied any paddling occurred at the team’s football camp. Mike Greene, a teammate of Spinelli’s, said he didn’t remember it happening.
“No one paddled me,” Greene said. “And I would know that because ... I was a pretty integral part of that team. No one I played with can remember that happening.”
On Wednesday, a man who called himself “Sean in Staten Island” and claimed to be a former Lincoln football player coached by Najjar in 1985 and 1986, called into WFAN’s "Miked Up," hosted by Mike Francesa. The man said he experienced “degrading” and “scary” events at Lincoln’s football camp that he claimed were similar to the allegations at Sayreville.
On Wednesday,
a parent of a Sayreville football player told NJ Advance Media that in an almost daily occurrence, upperclassmen would pounce on a freshman in the locker room, hold him down and digitally penetrate him. Those fingers then would be forced into the victim's mouth.
“I played for Najjar back in ’85 and ’86 and I could absolutely tell you that these types of things went on even then,” the caller said, without getting into specifics.
Francesa asked the caller if Najjar knew about it at the time.
“It was common knowledge amongst the team, certain events would go on,” the caller said. “We went up to football camp, and the stuff that went on in that camp was degrading and scary. Even though I was a big kid and I was a tough Brooklyn kid, you’d have five, six guys, teaming up on one guy, holding him down.”
“The fact that he wouldn’t know could be almost impossible to me. He was never present for any of these things. [But] they overhear what goes on.”
Attempts by NJ Advance Media to track down the caller have been unsuccessful.
One thing about Najjar remains certain: The man can coach. He began his varsity coaching career at Lincoln in 1983 and went on to compile a 94-32-1 record that included a PSAL city championship in 1993. Two years later, he was off to Sayreville, where he remains today.
With the Bombers, Najjar has steered the program to a 162-49 record and 18 straight playoff appearances, including three state sectional championships over the past four years. With the remainder of this season canceled because of an ongoing criminal investigation, Najjar's postseason streak will end.
a real "cac" team right there
... bu, bu, but that's "cac" culture
@pickles
@LurkMoar
@Stinky Diver
@mamba
@Hawaiian Punch
@kash10003
@mrken12
@Willstyles
@Danie84
@Fujiman
@blackzeus
@Ineedmoney504
@AITheAnswerAI
