Suit alleges hazing in UVA football program

A troubling report involving UVA football hit the news Wednesday night, with a suit filed by former wideout Aidan Howard alleging widespread hazing.

Howard, who left the program in August, alleges in the suit that players coerced first-year teammates into “conduct which imitated and mimicked sexual acts,” and that players were forced to participate in fights and wrestling matches while naked or partially naked, “an act referred to at UVA as ‘ramming.'”

The lawsuit names as defendants two UVA assistant coaches, Marques Hagans and Famika Anae, along with players Doni Dowling and David Eldridge, and administrators including university president Teresa Sullivan and athletics director Craig Littlepage.

First-year coach Bronco Mendenhall is not named in the suit.

A UVA spokesman confirmed to ESPN that the school is “actively investigating these reports consistent with its obligations under the law and university policy,” but would not comment on ongoing litigation.

Expect little else in the way of comment on this for the time being, with pending litigation requiring circling of the wagons.

Among the most troubling details in the suit is the description of an Aug. 12 incident that had Howard forced to engage in what was essentially a prize fight with an unnamed teammate that resulted in Howard suffering a broken orbital bone.

Howard was granted his release a week later, and he enrolled at Robert Morris, an FCS program, intending to play football there, before being held out for the season due to the injury to his eye socket, which required surgery in September.