Delaware State football, DeSean Jackson face lawsuit over alleged locker-room assault

Delaware State’s breakthrough season under DeSean Jackson has given the Hornets a national spotlight, but a civil lawsuit filed Thursday threatens to shift that attention from wins to liability, oversight and player safety. Former Hornets player Malachi Biggs alleges he suffered catastrophic injuries in a locker-room assault that took place before a 6:30 a.m. practice on Nov. 19, 2025.

The complaint, filed in Delaware Superior Court, names Jackson, assistant coach Travis Clark, director of football operations Jane Hicks and player Anthony Hebert as defendants. Because the filing is a civil complaint, the allegations have not been tested in court, but the case lands at a sensitive moment for a program that has spent months building momentum around Jackson’s celebrity and the team’s turnaround.

That momentum has been real. Delaware State announced on Dec. 23, 2025, that Jackson had signed a new contract through the 2028 season, and the university described him as the Hornets’ 25th football coach. The school also said the program had won only two games in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons before Jackson arrived, a reminder of how far the roster had climbed in a single year.

Jackson’s first Delaware State team finished 8-4 in 2025, the program’s best record since 2007. The Hornets also earned their first winning season since 2012, clinching it with a 14-12 victory at Morgan State on Nov. 7, 2025. That stretch helped transform Delaware State from a regional storyline into one of the most visible HBCU football programs in the country.

The program’s profile rose even more during the Oct. 30, 2025, game against Norfolk State at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, a showcase Delaware State and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference promoted as a potential paradigm shift for HBCU football. That stage, paired with Jackson’s name recognition, created a surge of attention that extended well beyond Dover.

Now the university faces a different kind of scrutiny. A lawsuit of this kind can reverberate through recruiting conversations, internal compliance reviews and the way donors, fans and conference peers assess the program’s leadership. It also raises immediate questions about what happened inside the football operation and how the school handled the alleged incident when it occurred.

The stakes are especially high because Delaware State has also been trying to turn athletic visibility into broader institutional gain. The university reported fall 2025 enrollment of 6,623 students, including more than 1,900 freshmen and transfer students, giving the football program’s rise added significance across campus as it tries to sustain its new momentum.