Lolo Jones has made quite a name for herself in the past few years as a force to be reckoned with on the track, competing in the Olympic Games with a drive unmatched by many. She is well-recognized because of the media attention she gets (like Tim Tebow, Jones claims she is a virgin and will stay that way until marriage), and, like many athletes, she is often challenged to prove her skills against a jokester who thinks they can take her on.
So when she got a tweet from football player Eric LeGrand asking for a race, she sent this in reply:
“Get Checked for a concussion. Clearly, u’ve been hit in the head… Cos u arnt beating a track athlete.”
The problem? LeGrand suffered a spinal injury in 2010 and is now paralyzed from the neck down.
As soon as the tweet went out, the backlash began. Jones’ Twitter page was flooded with angry responses accusing her of being insensitive and horrible. Very few people seemed to realize that Jones wasn’t aware of who LeGrange was at the time–she only knew he was a football player–and was simply joking back the way she does with many fans. She later apologized and reached out to LeGrange, who took it in stride.
No, dnt know. sry dont know every football player. He challenged me 2 a race & I responded RT @finae25: u know he’s a quadrapalegic now?
Great I’m gonna get murdered for that tweet. When I had no clue who that dude was.Just responding to any athlete who challenges me to a race
Exactly RT @marweea: I do understand u too. His profile doesn’t say “former” blah, blah… it seems as if he was still an active player!!
Thx.Getting trashed by tons of ppl glad ur not one of em RT @EricLeGrand52: didnt take it personal,understand where ur coming from.All good