Diddy Arrested After Fight With UCLA Football Coach
On the day after Father's Day, Diddy is doing some serious parenting of his own. According to TMZ, the rapper, producer and entrepreneur was arrested at about 12:30 p.m. PDT today (June 22) after getting in a fight with an assistant football coach at UCLA. Diddy's son, Justin Combs, is a defensive back for the school, a redshirt junior who has played in the secondary and on special teams during a handful of games over the past two years. A source who was at the team's training facility today says that Diddy was watching from the sidelines as Sal Alosi "was riding Justin," shouting at him intensely during a strength and conditioning drill. Other sources say that the Bad Boy founder didn't take too kindly to this, and later confronted the coach in his office, where he reportedly grabbed and either threatened or struck Alosi with a kettlebell.
Though Diddy's camp says he wanted to call police himself, a phone was taken out of his hands. He was subsequently arrested for assault and is still being held in the UCLA campus jail. Police officials told the Los Angeles Times that Diddy is expected to be transferred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Inmate Reception Center later this evening. In a statement, head coach Jim Mora had the following to say:
“I’m thankful that our staff showed the level of professionalism that they did in handling this situation. This is an unfortunate incident for all parties involved. While UCPD continues to review this matter, we will let the legal process run its course and refrain from further comment at this time.”
Alosi, a former Hofstra linebacker, was a member of the New York Jets coaching staff from 2002 until early 2011 (save for a one-year stint with the Atlanta Falcons). He is best known for a December 2010 incident in which he stuck out his knee from the sideline to trip the Miami Dolphins Nolan Carroll during a punt return. He has not coached in the NFL since his resultant resignation.
Diddy's new solo album, Money Making Mitch, is slated for a June 29 release, though he has done little in the way of a traditional press run to promote it. His last record, 2010's Last Train to Paris, was billed as a collaboration with Dirty Money. His influence is such that he convinced Kanye West, an international superstar (and expectant father, no less) to join his famous Hitmen production collective. That group was responsible for a litany of hits throughout the late 1990s from artists like Ma$e and The Notorious B.I.G.
50 Cent has been clowning Diddy on Instagram via two videos, which you can check out below.