Shaquille O’Neal, who played for LSU, fought a football player much shorter than him over a girl and ended up in detention.
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Shaquille O’Neal is a giant amongst men. Standing at an incredible 7’1″, the Big Diesel never shies away from a fight. Even in his NBA days, he was aggressive to a fault.
But growing up, O’Neal was even more vicious and he often got into fights with his peers. A self-identified bully, his personality even got him in trouble with the police while in college. To no one’s surprise, the fight started over a girl.
Shaquille O’Neal fought a college football player
In LSU, Shaq was a star. He was as famous as a kid could get. On a certain route to NBA, O’Neal’s on-court conquests turned him into a campus legend.
So, for him, other athletes weren’t as important. In his book Shaq Uncut, Shaq detailed the incident. He revealed that the fight started when O’Neal took on the football team by claiming LSU to be a basketball school.
Shaq and his team won a lot those days, but the football team was in a slump. So, Shaquille O’Neal’s taunt did not sit too well with them. Incidentally, Shaq met this girl named Tiffany Broussard who dated a football player.
The Lakers legend was trying to date her too. So, to woo her, he insulted the football team.
Shaq wrote: “Screw the football guys. Check their record. See what we’ve done. Basketball is king on this campus.” He continued:” The football player Tiffany liked was Anthony Marshall. He was about six foot three or four, a fairly big guy—unless he was standing next to me. So Anthony wanted to talk to me about what I said to Tiffany.”
The two lived in the same building. While in Anthony’s room, O’Neal argued with the player about his girlfriend. There were a few more football guys in the room with them.
The argument quickly turned into a full-blown fight. O’Neal hit Anthony in the mouth but was chased by the football team.
Shaquille O’Neal choked the football player
They caught up with Shaq in his room and started attacking him. But Diesel decided to challenge Anthony to a fair and square brawl.
O’Neal wrote: I got a couple of shots in (and so did he) before I got him in a headlock. By then the campus police was there and the football coach had come flying in, screaming, “Stop hitting my players!” He’s in my face shouting at me, “This is all your fault!” The next thing you know, Coach Brown is on the scene and he grabbed me and got me out of there. There are TV cameras rolling and the football players are getting arrested and it’s a big mess. For my role in everything, I was “detained” by the police. Anthony and I had to shake hands.
O’Neal’s tendency to fight and chase after women have followed him all his life. He’s famously beefed with many other athletes, gotten into fist fights (once with Kobe Bryant), and bullied people into acknowledging his superiority.
