{"id":873026,"date":"2026-04-23T20:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:32","slug":"desean-jackson-delaware-state-university-allowed-locker-room-assault-created-tough-guy-culture-lawsuit-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873026\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSean Jackson, Delaware State University allowed locker room assault, created &#8220;tough guy&#8221; culture, lawsuit claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A football player at Delaware State University is suing the school and coach DeSean Jackson, a former Philadelphia Eagles player, for an alleged assault on campus that left the player with serious injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Malachi Biggs, who was a safety and defensive back on the team, filed a lawsuit against Delaware State University, Jackson, assistant coach Travis Clark, Director of Football Operations Jane Hicks and student-athlete Anthony Hebert, according to court documents provided by Morgan &amp; Morgan, the firm representing Biggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In November 2025, Biggs was preparing for practice in the locker room when Hebert allegedly approached another teammate and choked him in response to a post on Instagram, according to the lawsuit. Hebert then allegedly confronted Biggs about the post and put him in a chokehold, ignoring Biggs&#8217; attempts to free himself. Biggs eventually became unconscious, and Hebert dropped him to the ground &#8220;head or face first,&#8221; the suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>Biggs sustained serious injuries to his face and head in the fall, including multiple jaw fractures, a cut on his chin that required surgery and irreparable damage to several teeth, according to the lawsuit. He was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Biggs, who was a freshman in the fall, according to Delaware State&#8217;s football website, returned to his home in North Carolina to recover and get additional medical care and has not returned to school since the alleged assault, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Hebert was angry that Biggs and the other player who was attacked referred to him as &#8220;buddy&#8221; in a post on social media, the suit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The suit alleges Hebert was never disciplined for the incident and played in a football game days after the attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Delaware State University declined to comment on the lawsuit. CBS News Philadelphia has also reached out to Jackson, Clark and Hicks for comment or more information.<\/p>\n<p>The suit claims the university, Jackson, Clark and Hicks were negligent and &#8220;breached its duties of reasonable care&#8221; for failing to keep athletes safe on campus and failing to supervise and investigate Hebert&#8217;s behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jackson, Clark and Hicks are also accused of creating a &#8220;tough guy&#8221; mentality on the team and protecting Hebert and other players who allegedly assaulted teammates.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Morgan &amp; Morgan founder John Morgan and attorney Georgia Pham said in part, &#8220;By dismissing violent assaults as mere &#8216;horseplay,&#8217; the University and coach DeSean Jackson allegedly fostered a toxic culture of bullying and hazing in the locker room. Our client came to this University to play the game he loved. Instead, he&#8217;s leaving with catastrophic injuries that may be career ending and have permanently derailed his life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Biggs is seeking money for medical bills, pain and suffering, past and future lost wages, loss of earnings and earning capacity and other damages.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/desean-jackson-head-coach-delaware-state-university\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jackson<\/a>, who played in the NFL for 15 years, including two stints with the Eagles, took over as head football coach at Delaware State University in Dover in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In a game at Lincoln Financial Field in October, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/michael-vick-desean-jackson-hbcu-batte-of-legends\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jackson&#8217;s Hornets defeated Norfolk State University<\/a>, coached by his former teammate Michael Vick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A football player at Delaware State University is suing the school and coach DeSean Jackson, a former Philadelphia&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[331,118294,7,27454],"class_list":{"0":"post-873026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-dover-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-historically-black-colleges-and-universities"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116455908516628813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}