1 Year Before NBA Debut, Shaquille O’Neal Started a Brawl That Led To Multiple LSU Athlete’s Arrests: “Hightailed it to My Girlfriend’s House”

Growing up, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t the kind of player to take things lying down. He regularly got into fights and more often than not was the cause of it all. The same was the case back in his college days with LSU. In fact, as he revealed in his book Shaq Talks Back, his naivete and decision to protect his teammates led to a brawl and multiple arrests of LSU athletes. Something he luckily managed to avoid by sneaking over to his girlfriend’s house mid-fight.

Shaq had overheard that the LSU Football Team was getting ready to beat up one of his teammates, Clarence Caesar. He had apparently gotten involved with one of the football player’s girlfriends, and as a result, was on their hit list. But, Big Diesel, being the great teammate that he was decided to step in, and things did not end well.

Shaquille O’Neal once got the entire LSU Football Team arrested after a ridiculous brawl

Back in the day, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t exactly the picture of discipline he is today. He was constantly getting into trouble. And, he often found himself in situations he struggled to get out of. Such was the case when he was on the LSU Tigers Basketball team.

One day, in the cafeteria, Shaq heard that the LSU Football Team wanted to beat up his teammate Clarence Caesar. Caesar had gotten involved with one of the player’s girlfriends. This is something that obviously didn’t sit well with them. However, Shaq was having none of this. He made it clear that no one was going to beat up Caesar.

So, he went to speak to one of the leaders of the team, prominent linebacker, Anthony Marshall. Unfortunately, Marshall refused to hear Big Diesel out and took his straightforward approach as a sign of disrespect. This ended up with Shaq hitting Marshall causing the entire football team to call for his head. Ultimately, this ended up with the basketball team and the football team going at it, and the cops getting involved, as Shaq fleed to his girlfriend’s house.

“I punched him in his face. Gave him a two-piece. And then I ran back downstairs. Not the smartest thing in the world. Five minutes later, the whole football team was after me, chanting, ‘We want Shaq! We want Shaq!’ Did I mention that the basketball players lived at the bottom of a dorm where the rest of the floors were all football players? Anthony Marshall and a couple of his boys broke down our door. Me and him started fighting again. Then the cops showed. When the football players started beating up the cops, I snuck out the back and hightailed it to my girlfriend’s house.”

The entire football team was arrested, and since Shaq was not at the scene, nobody saw him in handcuffs. A fact that infuriated a number of the football players.

The LSU Football Team accused the university of giving preferential treatment to Shaq and the basketball team

Following the brawl, the cops got involved in the situation. Something that led to a bunch of football players being arrested. However, since Shaquille O’Neal was nowhere to be seen, no action was taken against him. This obviously angered the football team, who claimed that Shaq and the basketball team got preferential treatment.

“It was mayhem. Everyone mad. All our football players got arrested which made people even more angry. A lot of people were saying, ‘Shaquille O’Neal was fighting, too. He didn’t get arrested. The basketball players have special privileges.'”

It’s likely that there was no preferential treatment involved. It just so happened that Shaq had managed to flee the scene. But, either way, looking back it was quite the hilarious conundrum.