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A sports announcer at an Oklahoma high school basketball game hurled a racial insult into a live microphone as players on the field knelt during the national anthem on Thursday night, sparking outrage and a widespread condemnation.
In a video clip that quickly went viral, the announcer could be heard cursing as he saw players on the Normandy high school girls’ basketball team kneel down just before the start of a quarterback tournament match. final against Midwest City.
“Are they on their knees?” he said, apparently not realizing that he and the rest of the broadcast crew could still be heard. Then he utters the racial insult, adding, “I hope they lose.”
“Are they going to kneel like that?” he keeps on. “Surely not.”
Frankie Parks, a Norman High School teacher and team coach, posted a video clip to Twitter on Friday morning condemning the announcer’s comments, which infuriated local leaders around Norman, a town of 123,000 people about 20 miles south of Oklahoma City.
“Tell us how are you really feeling?” Mr. Parks wrote. “That’s why they kneel.”
Announcer Matt Rowan apologized in a statement to The Frontier, a nonprofit news organization that covers Oklahoma. The organization described Mr. Rowan as the owner of a streaming service that broadcast the game.
Mr Rowan’s company website, OSPN, appears to have been taken down on Saturday morning. Mr Rowan did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
In his statement, Mr Rowan, who describes himself as a married father of two who attends a Baptist church, said he has type 1 diabetes.
“I not only embarrassed and disappointed myself, but I embarrassed and disappointed my family and friends,” he said. “During the game my sugar was skyrocketing. While I don’t apologize for my remarks, it’s not unusual when my blood sugar soars for me to become disoriented and often say things that are inappropriate as well as hurtful. “
Mr Rowan said that without his sugar spike, “I don’t think I would have made such horrible statements.”
He added that he couldn’t explain why he made the comments.
“It’s something I have to take responsibility for,” Rowan said. “I fully accept responsibility for my words and actions.”
Thursday’s remarks sparked strong criticism and fury from the mayor of Norman and the police department, as well as NFL players like Kenny stills and Gerald McCoy, who posted a photo on Twitter of the high school players kneeling down in support of.
“These young women are tough,” Sgt. Neelon Greenwood of the Norman Police Department said in a statement. “They are fighters. The comments made against them will fuel their fire. “
The partner network of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which broadcasts high school sports games, and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, which hosts the tournament, said they were investigating.
In two-way statements, both organizations said the broadcast team would not be used for the remainder of the tournament.
The network said it had “immediately severed ties with the third-party production team involved.”
“We apologize and are sickened by the comments,” the network said. “The thoughts expressed do not represent our network in any way and we are outraged that they have found their way into production.”
The unbeaten Normandy high school girls’ basketball team won the match 53-40.
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