UConn Women’s Soccer Player Suspended Over Celebratory Gesture

On Sunday, UConn’s women’s soccer team defeated the University of South Florida en route to clinching its first American Athletic Conference Title.

During the on-field celebrations, freshman team member Noriana Radwan got a little carried away and flipped off one of the cameras capturing the event, reports Deadspin.

Unfortunately for Radwan, the camera belonged to a certain Connecticut-based, national sports-broadcasting network, and ESPN beamed Radwan’s bird to homes across the country.

Following Radwan’s indiscretion, UConn issued the following statement.

“The University of Connecticut and its women’s soccer program would like to apologize for an inappropriate gesture a UConn student-athlete made to an ESPNU camera following today’s American Athletic Conference championship game. In particular, we apologize to the American Athletic Conference, our opponent and host school USF and to the members of the television audience. The gesture showed poor judgment and sportsmanship and does not represent what we want our program and University to stand for. The issue has already been addressed by the coaching staff to the student-athlete. The student-athlete has been indefinitely suspended from all team activities, including participation in UConn’s upcoming NCAA tournament games.”

I understand that UConn was embarrassed by their freshman’s mistake, but an indefinite suspension? This seems a little harsh.

I’ve reviewed the evidence and can justifiably say that UCONN is taking this way too seriously. Let’s take a look.

1) The initial “MOTHERF*****G CHAMPIONS Y’ALL!” phase

2) The secondary “Oh my god. What have I done?” moment

3) Finally the “no, no, no. It was definitely a peace sign all along” cover-up

Noriana screwed up, but she recognized it immediately. It’s not out of the question for UConn to be pissed, but the indefinite suspension levied against the freshman is both hypocritical and completely over the top.

#FreeNoriana