An angry Penn State fan sent a nasty letter to one of the school’s football players, telling the defensive back to cut his “awful” hair.
Antonio Shelton, a senior defensive tackle for the Nittany Lions, shared a photo on Twitter of the letter and said one of his teammates received it. The letter was addressed to “Jonathan” and mentioned dreadlocks. The only Jonathan on the team is Jonathan Sutherland, who has dreadlocks. Here’s the letter.
One of my teammates got this. Explain to me how this isn’t racist. pic.twitter.com/Qms1F6DEEP
— Antonio Shelton (@_groovy55) October 7, 2019
The fan starts by saying how he misses clean cut athletes from his day. Then he calls Sutherland’s hair “awful” and said the dreadlocks look “disgusting” and “not attractive.”
“Watching the Idaho game on TV we couldn’t help but notice your — well – awful hair. Surely there must be mirrors in the locker room! Don’t you have parents or girlfriend who’ve told you those shoulder length dreadlocks look disgusting and are certainly not attractive,” the letter says.
“We congratulate you on your game against Pitt but you need to remember you represent all Penn Staters both current and those alumni from years past. We would welcome the reappearance of dress codes for athletes.
“You will certainly be playing ‘on Sunday’ in the future but we have stopped watching the NFL due to the disgusting, tattoos, awful hair and immature antics in the end zone. Players should act as though they’ve ‘been there before’.”
The letter was signed by a man named Dave Petersen.
We have no doubt Petersen will be getting slaps on the back from his buddies over the hard-nosed letter, but this is so inappropriate we don’t know where to begin. If you don’t like someone’s hair, fine. But writing a personalized letter and sending it to a young player to say so is as mean-spirited and nasty as it gets. What has to be wrong in your life to move you to send something so awful to another person?
A couple of Canadian ballers right here.
Safety Jonathan Sutherland (@jay_suth) and linebacker Jesse Luketa (@OttawasVeryOwn) could play a huge role in Penn State defense for years to come. They will also attract some new Nittany Lions fans from north of the border. pic.twitter.com/Kz6wIqqOE0
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) April 22, 2018
Let's Work. #WeAre pic.twitter.com/XbfWmUnxNg
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) August 15, 2019
Sutherland had two blocked punts in the game against Idaho referenced by the fan. He was voted a team captain by his teammates, so even if he doesn’t have the respect of this curmudgeon, it seems he has plenty of respect within the program. We’re guessing that’s a tad bit more important. And when it comes to receiving angry fan letters, Sutherland is actually in very good company.
