Lions LB DeAndre Levy calls breaking Joe Paterno’s leg ‘my proudest moment in college’

DeAndre Levy made national headlines as a Wisconsin linebacker back in 2006 when he broke then-Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s leg.

Levy didn’t do it on purpose — he crashed helmet first into the late coach’s limb while making a tackle going out of bounds — but he doesn’t feel bad about it.

In fact, the current member of the Detroit Lions recently told Men’s Journal that breaking the then-80-year-old’s leg was “my proudest moment in college.”

Paterno was fired by Penn State’s board of trustees in November 2011 in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. He had been criticized for not acting more aggressively after a witness told him of seeing Sandusky, a former assistant coach, molest a boy in a locker room shower at the university.

“That dirtbag, man,” Levy said of Paterno, who died two months after being fired. “We’ve got to stop prioritizing sports over humanity. Just because somebody can throw a football or coach football, they’re excluded from their wicked acts.”

Lions Coach Jim Caldwell, who coached under Paterno at Penn State, said he disagreed with Levy’s opinion of his former mentor but that doesn’t matter.

“I think I’ve gone on record many times about how I feel about Joe,” Caldwell said. “And in regard to our players making their statement about how they feel, I’d be hypocritical to tell you anything other than the fact that they can express their opinion.

“We don’t all necessarily agree with it.”

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Twitter: @chewkiii