By Ben Langston
According to police reports, on Oct. 24, 2010 two former University of Louisville football players entered into an argument with a third player about performance in practice. The argument quickly escalated to a violent assault, police said.
Twin brothers, freshman redshirts Isaac and Jacob Geffrad, are currently being charged with assaulting their teammate, junior linebacker Patrick Grant, in the locker room at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. The criminal complaint summons has defined their fists as “dangerous instruments” due to the severity of the assault.
According to the complaint, Grant suffered a broken nose and fractured eye socket, among other injuries. He was immediately taken to University Hospital and has since undergone two surgeries to repair the bones around his eye, according to local media reports.
“Any time you have a lot of people together, especially on a more open campus like U of L, there are going to be arguments and, unfortunately, sometimes those arguments are going to escalate to physical violence,” said Lt. Col. Kenny Brown, assistant chief of police for the University Police. “We can’t guarantee that crime is never going to happen on campus, but U of L is a pretty safe campus and we work hard to keep it that way.”
Brown expressed surprise that such an attack would occur in the U of L Athletic Department.
“If anything, I’m surprised it happened in an athletic group,” said Brown. “In my time here, this is the only instance like this I can think of. They tend to share a lot of camaraderie.”
Some students speculate that the pressures of athletics and academics may be to blame.
“I know from experience that competition like that can get really intense,” said Amelia Gandara, a junior chemical engineering major. “It wouldn’t surprise me if something as serious as college football could spark an argument.”
While the University Police handled the law enforcement side of the case, the Athletic Department took care of administrative details.
“[The Geffrads] were removed from the roster,” said Rocco Gasparro, assistant sports information director for U of L athletics.
Although information regarding the assault is just now entering public knowledge, the assault took place in October of 2010.
“It wouldn’t necessarily bother me if they tried to keep it under wraps to keep the focus on the game and improving and working together,” said Gandara. “It has been this year, but I guess I can’t really say if the information is just coming out for that reason or not.”
Although Gandara and many other students have speculated that the incident was kept silent to save the university embarrassment, University Police contend that the case was not handled with any special treatment.
“We treated this just like we’d treat any other investigation,” said Brown. “Records of incidents like this that happen on campus are readily available online.”
A Nov. 1 entry on the University Police crime log notes that U of L students were involved in an assault at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Oct. 24.
While the Geffrad twins have been charged, they recently pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“I do think it’s strange that they are trying to plead not guilty when there was obviously an altercation,” said Gandara.
The University Police handled the complaint and police reports internally, though Grant has sought external legal representation.
Grant, the Geffrads and their lawyers were all unavailable for comment.
