It's going to be tough for LI to get out of this jam. People will forgive you for murder, but never for rape!
Considering everyone now knows Lloyd Irvin was essentially part of a gang rapist (and only got out of prison time by getting stage fright infront of his friends) will make most athletes think twice about associating with him. Atleast I hope so.
You would think everyone in the team not involved would want to distance themselves from this situation as much as possible so could result in a lot of guys leaving.
If everything is as appears I could see a core group of guys staying by LI but then you'd get a situation where guys who were considering training there will no longer be interested in training there. Similarly I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of guys left - leaving just a core group. I know I wouldn't want to train at a place where these guys had been living. It's not to say that the rest of the guys aren't good moral men but I wouldn't want to take the chance knowing there are ten's of other great schools in the country where I can be a lot more confident this kind of person isn't hanging out. All that said... if LI continues to have success/doesn't fall apart people are fickle and in a few months to years and a few world champions later people's memories will be short.
Look at Mike Tyson. A convicted rapist with reports of spousal abuse and yet, bafflingly, he is still an idol for many people. Look at the levels of support for Paterno when the Penn State abuse scandal came out. People forgive sex crimes and related moral failures shockingly easily. I would really hope that large numbers of people would want to leave team LI after this but frankly I'd be surprised.
If it is handled well he can get through this. I know that I am disturbed by these reports and personally lost some respect for LI. I had respect for his team but now I am on the fence about these guys. People make mistakes but what these guys did and hearing about their master doing something similar makes me think twice about what is going on over there.
Nope, if anything it will make them even closer, as well as raise awareness for women not just here but all across the Jiu-jitsu community. Sometimes a really negative event like this has positive effects on the other end, even from really heinous situations such as what happened.
I don't think it will effect his team at all actually.His team and people that got along with him before will keep doing it and the people that didn't like him before have something additional to dislike/voice about him.
If Lloyd Irvin produces an American (blackbelt) World Champion he and his team will begin to be worshipped again and everything will be forgotten.
im curious to see what happens. will he still show up at the big tournaments? will he still market his products aggressively? lloyd always talks about haters. now i think the haters will come down like a ton of bricks.
I think some of his top guys may well leave. JT Torres has always seemed like a very good dude, I have a hard time seeing him stay. Don't know about DJ or Harbison. Jordan will probably stay, I'm not sure who else would take him plus he seems to have a warped sense of propriety anyway.
I disagree. Honestly I think they will all stay. It will become a matter of pride for them that they stuck with him.
JT torres should leave. he got all he could from tli. now it just seems like hes brainwashed. its like a cult over there
I honestly think this wont effect the competition team, Lloyds marketing, or their participation in tournaments at all. They will see the actions as the wrong choices of 2 individual adult students. Lloyd will view criticism as an opportunity for those who dont like him anyway to throw a 20ish year old case that he was acquitted from to undermine him and his team. He views himself as completely innocent of the gang rape case, which was the reason he acquitted. His biggest concern will be on the female student who was raped, and how all the excess noise will harm his business and team.
Lloyd has always had a "us vs the world" mentality. I honestly believe it will just solidify that mentality even further too.
