Lolo Jones in hot water over tweet to Eric LeGrand

So, it seems the Internet is all atwitter over the fact that U.S. track star Lolo Jones responded to a tweet from paralyzed former Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand with a tweet of her own that some took as insensitive.

LeGrand, who was paralyzed during a game in 2010, tweeted “Want to race me” to Jones, who finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles at the London Olympics.

Jones tweeted back: “Get checked for a concussion. clearly u’ve been hit in the head ... cos u arent beating a track athlete.”

And now it seems everyone is upset. How could Jones write something like that to a man in a wheelchair?

Well, calm down, everyone. Stop being offended on the behalf of other people and look at it rationally. Jones had never heard of LeGrand, didn’t know he was paralyzed, and was just playfully tweeting back to a guy she thought playfully challenged her to a race.

When informed of the fact LeGrand was paralyzed, Jones tweeted: “No, dnt know. sry dont know every football player. He challenged me 2 a race & I responded.”

LeGrand later tweeted: “didnt take it personal, understand where ur coming from. All good.”

Jones later released a statement to Yahoo Sports stating: “I’m truly sorry if I offended anyone by my tweet. When Eric challenged me to a race earlier all I knew was that he was a football player, but certainly had no idea he had become paralyzed from a football injury. I thought I was tweeting in good fun like I always do with the many athletes who challenge me to races.”

But do a Google search on Lolo Jones today and you will see many sites and people ripping her for her insensitivity. Nonsense, I say. She didn’t know who LeGrand was, made a playful response to his tweet, then apologized when she found out he was paralyzed.

If LeGrand isn’t offended, you shouldn’t be either. End of story.

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