Soccer Player Punished For Giving Middle Finger Files Lawsuit Against UConn – Huffington Post

Noriana Radwan was an 18-year-old freshman soccer player at the University of Connecticut when her team won the 2014 American Athletic Conference championship game.

An ESPNU television camera focused on Radwan as she cheered and hugged her teammates on the field, and she enthusiastically threw up her left middle finger. She never imagined this one gesture ― for which she says she has since “profusely apologized” ― would destroy her career as a UConnn student-athlete.

A few weeks after the incident, then-head coach Len Tsantiris called Radwan to let her know her scholarship would be terminated mid-year for what he called a “serious misconduct issue.”

Nearly two years after that phone call, Radwan is still fighting back.

She announced at a press conference on Monday that she’s filing a lawsuit against UConn and three people associated with the decision to end her scholarship: Tsantiris, the university’s former athletic director and the director of student financial aid. 

Radwan’s layer, Greg Tarone, said UConn and the involved individuals violated his client’s First Amendment rights and the NCAA Division I bylaws.

Radwan is asking the school for financial retribution, The Associated Press reports. 

“I loved UConn, but I lost faith in it as an institution when it allowed my scholarship to be illegally taken away so abruptly and crassly in the middle of the school year,” Radwan said. “Nobody should have to go through what I have gone through in the past two years. Only litigation will stop it.”

Watch the press conference below: