From: logic23x@gmail.com   
      
   ESPN   
   OUTSIDE THE LINES   
      
   “I Just Wanted To Survive”   
   A college football player thought he and a friend were going to meet up with   
   two women. Instead, they were abducted and tortured for 40 hours -- all   
   because of a teammate.   
      
   by Tisha Thompson and Andy Lockett   
   06/29/17   
      
      
   Niko Kollias watched his blood swirl down the bathtub drain. There was so   
   much. And it was coming from so many places. His head. Both of his legs. And   
   the gaping cuts where they had sliced the webbing between his toes.   
      
   Even more blood was coating the clothing iron sitting on the sink. He didn't   
   know where they'd put the hedge clippers; he was just glad they were gone. He   
   could still see the roll of duct tape nearby, covered with the bloody   
   fingerprints they'd left    
   behind when they taped his hands and feet together before slamming the rebar   
   and heavy metal pipes down onto him, over and over again. His khaki pants and   
   ripped University of Rochester Football T-shirt sat crumpled in the corner,   
   the blue and yellow of    
   his college colors turning brown as his blood began to oxidize in the fabric.   
      
   Kollias wanted to take off his ACL brace, the one he'd been wearing after knee   
   surgery for a recent football injury. He wanted to clean it and his skin   
   underneath. But he worried that if he pulled the brace apart, his leg might   
   actually fall off. His    
   femur was shattered; he'd felt it explode after they shot him there when he   
   tried to run. He didn't realize they'd also shot him in the calf of his other   
   leg. He could no longer feel that leg and couldn't see it because so much   
   blood kept pouring into    
   his eyes from his scalp, over which they had smashed a long, fluorescent   
   lightbulb. It was only then, when the blood just wouldn't stop from that last   
   blow, that they halted their attack and threw him in the shower.   
      
   He could hear the men in the room next door, laughing, smoking weed and maybe   
   still wearing those terrifying plastic masks.   
      
   But who were they? Kollias didn't know. He could see only their eyes through   
   the masks when they attacked him. He couldn't even see their mouths move as   
   they screamed for revenge. As he sat in the folding chair they'd put into the   
   grimy shower, Kollias,    
   a 6-foot-1, 215-pound University of Rochester senior defensive end, realized   
   he had no idea where he was, who the men were or even what they wanted from   
   him. All he knew was that they had shot and then beaten him for more than   
   three hours.   
      
   As he sat there in the shower watching his blood pour down the drain, Kollias   
   had no idea that it was all connected to his football team. And he had no way   
   of knowing that the torture had only just begun.   
      
   video   
   Kollias' horrifying ordeal at 22 Harvest Street   
   Watch E:60's full-length feature on former University of Rochester defensive   
   end Niko Kollias at 9 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN.ROCHESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT   
      
   WHEN NICHOLAS KOLLIAS arrived on campus three years earlier, in 2012, he had   
   two great passions: piano and football. The University of Rochester fit both   
   perfectly. Its Division III football team wanted him for its defense, and,   
   even better, he was also    
   accepted into classes at the renowned Eastman School of Music. "I was so   
   happy," he remembers. After his piano audition, "I thought I would never make   
   the cut in a million years," he says. It was "definitely a huge deal."   
      
   Kollias, a Chicago native, played mostly special teams for the Yellowjackets,   
   a middling squad that typically hovered around .500. But in his junior year,   
   the school recruited Isaiah E. Smith, a talented freshman linebacker from the   
   Bronx. "He had the    
   size; he had the speed; and he just changed the game for our team," Kollias   
   says. Smith grew up in a tough situation -- housing was unstable -- but   
   developed into a good student at Park East High School, earning MVP honors in   
   three straight seasons. In    
   his first year at Rochester, the team went 5-4 and Smith made 80 tackles, most   
   on the team. "He was literally our star defensive player," Kollias says.   
      
   Off the field, though, Kollias avoided Smith. He says he didn't like how Smith   
   bragged about being able to get marijuana for students. "He had a reputation   
   for wanting to be the drug dealer on campus," Kollias says. "That's really   
   what he took pride in    
   more than his exceptional athletics, which was shocking to me."   
      
   Another former Rochester player tells Outside the Lines that he bought   
   marijuana from Smith several times. Speaking on the condition of anonymity   
   because he had committed a crime by purchasing the drugs, the former player   
   says Smith told him "he had    
   connections in New York City" and could "get whatever I needed. As much as I   
   would need." Although all of their transactions went "smoothly" because of   
   their football connection, the player says Smith developed a reputation for   
   ripping other students off.   
    "I heard stories that he knew how to work his way over on people. Would just   
   take people's money and not give them anything back. It was small money, but   
   he was one of the best football players on the team, and he could definitely   
   be intimidating."   
      
   Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli confirms that Smith "was involved in   
   drug dealing." But neither Rochester football coach Scott Greene nor the   
   school's administration would comment on the matter. Smith also declined to be   
   interviewed; his    
   attorney says his client is "not a drug dealer."   
      
   Kollias says he believes the Rochester coaching staff knew Smith was tangled   
   up with drugs but chose to look the other way. Other players had faced harsh   
   consequences when they violated rules, Kollias says. "Things happen, like   
   drunk driving," he    
   explains. "And when those things happened, usually the players were all kicked   
   off of the team."   
      
   "The kids who were the better athletes were definitely on a longer leash," the   
   other teammate says. "He was one of the best players on the team. He wasn't   
   going to get kicked off the team."   
      
      
   Watch Niko's harrowing story Sunday on ESPN   
   E:60 showcases the best in longform television journalism. For more, tune into   
   E:60 at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday on ESPN.   
      
   Listen to this special OTL for E:60 podcast, where Ryan Smith talks to   
   correspondent, Tisha Thompson, and producer, Andy Lockett about their   
   harrowing story from 22 Harvest Street.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)