Posted on 09/04/2023 10:28:05 AM PDT by DFG
The University of Central Florida had to apologize for a social media post deemed insensitive during the team’s 56-6 blowout win in its season opener against Kent State on Thursday.
The post featured UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee on the phone on the sidelines at FBC Mortgage Stadium, captioned, “Somebody call the National Guard.”
While the post was supposed to reference a famous Shannon Sharpe moment in which he pretended to use the sideline phone to speak to the President to call the National Guard during a 1996 Broncos game against the Patriots, it instead reminded people about a tragic Kent State moment more than 50 years ago.
In 1970, the National Guard was deployed to Kent State’s campus because of students protesting the Vietnam War, and troops fired into the crowd, killing four students and injuring nine others, causing a nationwide student strike.
“An unfortunate post was made with the intention to reference the famous Shannon Sharpe sideline clip of him on the phone from a 1996 game against the New England Patriots,” UCF said in a statement to USA Today.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If playing to the “echo of the whistle” means twisting an opponent’s knee while he’s in a pile underneath other men, well, I guess that’s a coach/player prerogative. I think it’s morally repugnant, personally.
Well the news isn’t all bad.
https://news.ufl.edu/2023/09/wsj-ranking/
I know we didn’t like Sasse when he was a Senator, but I think he’s a great choice for University President.
Totally agree. And go Gators!
Truth be told, I’m surprised that even half of the students understood the irony of the comment.
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