As promised, Lions fan Ryan Kennedy met with reporters on Friday regarding Sunday’s incident with Steelers DK Metcalf at Ford Field. As expected, the press conference was a precursor to a likely lawsuit.
The full video can be seen here. Kennedy sat between his two lawyers, wearing a suit jacket, a dress shirt, and a Lions hat turned backward. He spoke briefly.
“It is really hard to get me upset, but there’s two things, animal abuse, racism, like, I get hot right away,” Kennedy said. “Like, I can feel with my face. It gets all warm. So I guess I want to be crystal clear about one thing: I didn’t use any racial slurs, no hate speech. I mean, none of that stuff at the game.
“Actually, never — 15 years, season ticker holder for the Lions, I’ve never done that, at all. So, DeKaylin, if you’re watching this man, just — if you could just say that please, like, my family’s getting threats and stuff, it’s not cool. So whether you said that or not, I’m sure you didn’t want that to happen to the family. Even if you did, like, I forgive you, man. That’s all I got. Go Lions.”
Kennedy seemed agitated and, at times, impatient. Near the end of the 13-minute video, as attorney Shawn Head attempted to take questions from reporters who weren’t present but were participating in the press conference online, Kennedy said, “Why am I still here?”
And that ended the event.
At the outset of the press conference, Head spoke first. He characterized the interaction initiated by Metcalf as an “assault.”
“What happened is this,” Head said. “A professional athlete approached the stands, reached into the stands, grabbed the spectator by his shirt, pulled him downwards, and struck him.”
There has been no claim that the assault physically injured Kennedy. The harm allegedly came from the subsequent effort to justify Metcalf’s behavior.
“After that assault, false accusations of racism and racial slurs were made publicly,” Head said. “As a result, Ryan Kennedy and his family have received threats, they’ve been harassed, and his business has been damaged. His business has received negative online reviews and negative comments based on those false accusations of racist statements.
“Being falsely branded as a racist is one of the most damaging accusations that a private citizen can endure. It’s dangerous, and it causes very real consequences and very real damage.”
And “very real damage” is what usually triggers a very real lawsuit.
Head added that the lawyers have reached out to Metcalf’s representatives, with a request that the record be corrected as to the things said, and not said, by Kennedy. Head explained that, as of Friday morning, the lawyers had received no response.
While that wouldn’t undo the damage already done, silence bolsters the eventual lawsuit, giving Kennedy’s lawyers the ability to argue that they tried, repeatedly, to get Metcalf to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Above all else, it’s clear that a lawsuit is coming — unless Kennedy decides to put the pin back in the grenade.
“The goal here is accountability and to correct the record,” Head said. “Again, the false accusations of racial statements or racial slurs being used causes real damage, and that needs to be corrected. Mr. Kennedy obviously has the ability to correct that record, but so does everybody else who heard what was actually said. And so does Mr. Metcalf. He can come out and tell the truth and indicate that he never heard any racial slur uttered by Mr. Kennedy.”
Head was asked whether a lawsuit has been filed.
“Right now, we’re evaluating all of our options, of course, and we’re gonna make sure that we use any legal remedies available to help protect Ryan Kennedy and his family,” Head said. “And again, we’re not gonna litigate this in the media. We’re here today to set the record straight.”
From Kennedy’s perspective, the record is as straight as it can be. The question is whether Metcalf and/or those who pushed his version to multiple media outlets (and those media outlets) will do the same.
Either way, expect a lawsuit against Metcalf and possibly others. If Metcalf won’t say Kennedy didn’t say what he allegedly said, the only alternative is to get a judge and/or a jury to say it.
