AJ Ferrari

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sometimes the best thing for you turns out to be
the worst thing for you, or comes close or gets
you in jail for every grand social experiment, like Tom
Osborne standing by Lawrence Phillips, not because he was the
most gifted running back to ever wear the school colors,
but because football was the only thing between LP and

(00:20):
jail or death or sadly eventually both, we are left
to wonder was the juice worth the squeeze? The equation
doesn't change. Often a troubled kid who excels in athletics
converts those ingredients humility, discipline, commitment, goal setting, overcoming adversity
into a decent life after football or basketball or wrestling.

(00:45):
Sometimes it doesn't meet. Aj Ferrari, wrestler University of Nebraska,
been arrested three times already this year, everything from a
warrant for jumping bail in Texas, a high speed chase
across Lincoln County, Nebraska, to third degree sexual violence and
first degree false imprisonment allegations. But prosecutors have a lot

(01:08):
of evidence. This is an individual brought to Nebraska despite
more personal baggage than a Samsonite salesman, to help Husker
wrestling win a title in four years of college wrestling.
He's a three time All American and helped the guy.
Whether it was in that order, only Husker head coach
Mark Manning knows for certain, but Manning is hardly the

(01:31):
only coach who played Father Flanagan with AJ. It's obvious
these gestures didn't work. Ferrari has become an embarrassment to
his sport and disgraced every coach and program he's touched,
even though he hasn't. AJ's list is long. He took
a swing at an opponent after a match in twenty
twenty three and then flipped off the crowd when it

(01:51):
started booing him after a loss in the NCAA semi finals.
He came out with a suspicion that the other guy
was on steroids. Zero evidence. AJ just figured there was
no other way he could lose. He's particularly scary behind
the wheel. Four years before the North Platt Lincoln County
Drag Race, he ignored the no passing zone, attempted to

(02:12):
pass two cars on an Oklahoma highway, crashed head on
with a pickup truck. Miraculously, nobody was seriously injured, but
it did cause Ferrari to miss a whole season recovering.
While in Texas, he was facing charges on two other
vehicle related incidents. When he wasn't driving, he was in
trouble with women. At Oklahoma State, he was under investigation

(02:35):
for sexual assault. Those charges were dropped up to the
disturbing police report from a May eighth, the Lledge attacked
on a pregnant woman in Lincoln. He denies any of
her accusations, but the police report details him throwing her
off a bed, marks on her neck consistent with strangulation,
and other bruises. She claims when she attempted to call

(02:57):
for help, he took her phone and iPad let her
leave for an hour. He was arrested last week in Bennington,
trying to sneak into the back of a vehicle, presumably
to avoid arrest. His lawyers say they have evidence contradicting
all of it that we want to see. He is
a very good wrestler and that's the problem. Wrestling has

(03:19):
been AJ's get out of jail free card pre Nebraska,
his stops for Oklahoma State, Iowa, Cal Bakersfield, tried North Carolina,
which has been the only to resist his talents and
hang the unwelcome sign out Nebraska took him and clearly
now that was a bad idea. Technically, AJ's eligible to

(03:39):
keep wrestling, but based on the stack of evidence and
charges pending, he might need parole to get to campus.
Wise cracks aside, Wrestling has been the single biggest reason
for this bad behavior, not directly, but it has enabled
him to avoid accountability. If he wasn't a great athlete,
he'd have paid dearly for the first incident, just like

(04:00):
the rest of us. But each time a wrestling coach
who needed an All American said this is it the
last time? Well, AJ's had four last times. I believe
wrestling enabled this pattern of bad behavior. Wrestling became his
means to avoid punishment or at least any consequences, and
it probably began long ago, but his talents always trumped

(04:22):
his accountability. It's not new. Bad actors get mulligans all
the time. The key is to take advantage of them.
Somebody passed that along to AJ if he has any
left