Kyler Murray – Photo: University of Oklahoma Football, via Facebook.
Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, the starting quarterback for the University of Oklahoma, has apologized for homophobic tweets he made as a teenager, reports CBS.
Murray, a junior, won the prestigious award, given annually to college football’s most valuable player, over Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins on Saturday night.
But on the night he was being honored, USA Today reported that when he was 15 the Sooners quarterback had tweeted at some friends using homophobic slurs to insult them. At the time, Murray made at least four tweets using the offensive language.
Shortly after the news broke, 21-year-old Murray deleted the tweets and apologized for their content.
“I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15,” he tweeted on Sunday. “I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.”
I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15. I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.
Murray also addressed the tweet in an appearance on CBS’ The NFL Today.
“You know, I was young, I own every part of it. I used a poor choice of words. At the same time, me being at this stage, having this platform, I learned from it,” he said. “It’s critical for me, crucial to me that I move on from it, but at the same time, own up to what I said and move on and learn from it.”
Murray, who excels at baseball as well as football, has signed a $4.66 million contract with the Oakland Athletics after being selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft in June. While some sports fans have speculated that he might be enticed to play in the National Football League if he’s drafted high, his agent, Scott Boras, put the kibosh on those rumors, telling NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport that Murray would stick with baseball.
Murray is also the latest athlete to find themselves in the middle of a controversy based on their past statements on Twitter. Earlier this year, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen saw racist tweets from his teenage years resurface ahead of the NFL draft, when some sports pundits had predicted he would be the number-one overall pick.
Villanova Final Four Most Outstanding Player Donte DiVincenzo came under fire for a tweet quoting racist rap lyrics after helping his team win a national title.
Uganda's Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of Uganda's controversial Anti-Homosexuality Act, rejecting a petition seeking to overturn the law in its entirety.
The five-judge bench did strike down some components of the law as violations of the country's constitution, including the right to health and privacy.
They also struck down sections of the law allowing for the prosecution of Ugandans who fail to inform on others, including friends and neighbors, for committing homosexual acts; punishing those who allow their premises to be used to commit homosexuality; and criminalizing the transmission of a "terminal illness" through same-sex activity.
Anti-LGBTQ trolls have blamed openly gay Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for a bridge collapse in Baltimore believed to have killed six people after it was hit by a 95,000-ton cargo ship.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after the Dali, a 985-foot container ship flying the Singapore flag, crashed into the bridge's reinforced concrete support pier.
The container ship, which was traveling at about 9 miles per hour, lost both engine power and electrical power to its control and communications systems minutes before it crashed into the bridge stanchion.
Police in West Hollywood are searching for a man who assaulted another while man yelling anti-gay slurs. He is also believed to have assaulted other individuals in the area.
The victim of the anti-gay assault, David Velasquez, told the WeHo Times that, on Sunday, March 17, he was coming back from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he had been treated earlier in the day for severe cold and flu symptoms.
He stopped by the Pavilions in WeHo to pick up medication and was riding his personal scooter home when the altercation occurred.
Velasquez noted that he was riding on the sidewalk to avoid being hit by potentially drunk drivers as he made his way through West Hollywood on a particularly raucous St. Patrick’s Day.
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Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, the starting quarterback for the University of Oklahoma, has apologized for homophobic tweets he made as a teenager, reports CBS.
Murray, a junior, won the prestigious award, given annually to college football’s most valuable player, over Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins on Saturday night.
But on the night he was being honored, USA Today reported that when he was 15 the Sooners quarterback had tweeted at some friends using homophobic slurs to insult them. At the time, Murray made at least four tweets using the offensive language.
Shortly after the news broke, 21-year-old Murray deleted the tweets and apologized for their content.
“I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15,” he tweeted on Sunday. “I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.”
Murray also addressed the tweet in an appearance on CBS’ The NFL Today.
“You know, I was young, I own every part of it. I used a poor choice of words. At the same time, me being at this stage, having this platform, I learned from it,” he said. “It’s critical for me, crucial to me that I move on from it, but at the same time, own up to what I said and move on and learn from it.”
Murray, who excels at baseball as well as football, has signed a $4.66 million contract with the Oakland Athletics after being selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft in June. While some sports fans have speculated that he might be enticed to play in the National Football League if he’s drafted high, his agent, Scott Boras, put the kibosh on those rumors, telling NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport that Murray would stick with baseball.
Murray is also the latest athlete to find themselves in the middle of a controversy based on their past statements on Twitter. Earlier this year, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen saw racist tweets from his teenage years resurface ahead of the NFL draft, when some sports pundits had predicted he would be the number-one overall pick.
Villanova Final Four Most Outstanding Player Donte DiVincenzo came under fire for a tweet quoting racist rap lyrics after helping his team win a national title.
And in July, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Josh Hader was forced to apologize and undergo sensitivity training after homophobic and misogynistic tweets were dredged up while he was playing in the MLB All-Star Game.