Ex-NFL tight end Joseph Fauria gave for spraining his ankle in 2014, chasing his puppy down the stairs,  was a bold faced lie. 

 Fauria, who was with the Detroit Lions, said he missed two steps while chasing after his 3-month-old Pomeranian/husky mix, Lil’ Rufio, at his apartment after Week 3 of the NFL season. While bracing for a fall, he put his 265-pound frame on his left foot and sprained his ankle.

“He was about to pee and I was like, ‘Come here you little … nugget,'” Fauria said then. “I wasn’t running but I was chasing him downstairs and I just misstepped … and I just didn’t end up well.”

But that wasn’t the true story. Fauria said in a recent podcast of his that he suffered the injury while playing volleyball, which he originally had dismissed in 2014 as a rumor.

Instead, fearing the Lions wouldn’t pay him for injuring himself for playing another sport, Fauria put the blame on Lil’ Rufio.

“Did I want to lie to my head coach? No, but I was thinking about myself,” Fauria said. “… [Friends] told me that if the team, the organization, the Lions found out I was playing volleyball and I got hurt playing volleyball, that they could exercise the option of not paying me.”

Maybe just don’t play volleyball while you’re being paid to play football? I never understood why these guys risk it all for zero upside. Also what a fricking liar.