DETROIT – Detroit sports radio host Mike Valenti took the airwaves on Monday to defend Michigan State University athletics after ESPN reported last week that they may be involved in covering up a culture of sexual assault.
The ESPN report on Outside the Lines offered some old and some new stories involving players in the Michigan State football and basketball programs and sexual assault.
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Football coach Mark Dantonio responded to the story, saying: "I’m here tonight to say that any accusations of my handling of any complaints of sexual assault individually are completely false. Every incident reported in that article was documented by either police or with Michigan State’s Title IX office."
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Valenti started his Monday show on 97.1 The Ticket taking aim at the ESPN report, calling it a "hit piece" and demanding to see actual evidence.
“I think it’s an absolute hit piece on Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio and when you’re splicing in cuts of that vile, monstrous scumbag Larry Nassar and somehow now trying to draw conclusions by repackaging old news, things that were investigated, things that were handled. I’m sorry that’s not journalism, that’s TMZ," he said.
“No Spartan is out here defending that, no Spartan is out here apologizing for bad people but repackaging old news and calling it ‘Spartan Secrets,’ that’s no more than opportunistic TMZ hit piece garbage. It’s part of the reason that company is going out of business."
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He added, “I want Lauren Allswede to provide proof, I want to see Lauren Allswede’s documentation. I want ESPN to bring real answers to light because then, guess what, I’ll be the one to bring the match to burn my own school down.”