Dear University Of South Florida:
I am not a USF graduate nor am I related to Joel Miller, the former USF football player your former coach Jim Leavitt assaulted in your locker room in front of 30 of your players who you paid $2.75 million to go away and never come back because he assaulted one of your players.
I am, however, a father to two young men who are now in their 30s with families of their own, one of whom was once a youth football rival of Joel’s who later became good friends with him — close enough friends that Joel’s mother Kathy says she thinks of my son as Joel’s brother.
But, Joel never made it to his 30s. He never got to have a family or even live to see if he could make his dream of playing in the NFL one day come true. And why?
Because Jim Leavitt decided to make an example of Joel at halftime of a game that USF was winning, by the way, by holding him by the throat, slamming him against the wall and — according to the reenactment Joel did for me of the events of that day in November 2009 — striking him with a closed fist three times, all in front of those 30 players.
But, Joel took this felony assault like a man. He finished out the game and the season without any attempt on his part to seek publicity, press charges or get money out of his school or even out of Jim Leavitt. All Joel wanted to do was play football. And the only thing he ever wanted from Jim Leavitt was an apology that never came.
It was another player who witnessed Coach Leavitt’s assault on Joel who contacted the local sports radio station. Colby Erskin wasn’t even necessarily calling the station to talk about Joel. Colby was calling to say that Jim Leavitt had gotten an assistant coach to throw all of his gear out of his locker and into a driving rain. He just inadvertently mentioned that what Leavitt did to him wasn’t nearly as bad as what he did to Joel.
And that lit the fire that Joel’s mother Kathy, his father Paul and his sister Jamie know in their hearts ultimately led to the end of Joel’s too-short life. Their son and brother was ridiculed, cursed at, had beer thrown on him and a brick thrown at him that sliced open the back of his head. He was unable to escape (as I wrote in the February 28, 2015 edition of New Tampa Neighborhood News when I became the first member of the media Joel allowed to tell his story) being “that kid” — that whistle-blowing, attention-seeking kid who got Jim Leavitt fired.
But, whether you knew Joel and his family as well as I did or not, if you’ve ever had a son of your own and you saw their life spiral out of control because of the actions of one pompous megalomaniac who assaulted your child, how would you feel about that worthless piece of garbage being inducted into the Hall of Fame of the school that paid to get rid of him?
I went to Leavitt’s USF Hall of Fame bio on GoUSFBulls.com for his picture and I couldn’t help but notice that there was no mention of USF being sued by this “standup guy” or having to pay him out millions in order to send him on his way.
The Letter
Kathy told me that she found Joel’s hand-written letter to “Jim” less than two years after Joel passed away in 2017, at the age of 29. It’s a powerful two-page (below) appeal to Leavitt for nothing more than an apology — one Joel knew when he wrote it (8/12/2015) would never come. Pompous megalomaniacs don’t generally apologize for their actions, especially when they get away with them scot-free. “Jim” went on to coach in the NFL and at four other college programs.
But, eight years after losing him, Joel Miller’s family is still broken. Their son and brother? Gone forever. All they really want — and genuinely deserve — is for your school to reconsider its decision to bestow this honor on a guy who never took you to a major bowl game — and committed felony assault and lied about it. Otherwise, please re-name it the USF “Hall of Shame” — and take the late, great Lee Roy Selmon out of it.
He deserves better — and so do the Millers.
