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The outcry and fallout was swift.
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Basketball announcer loses job after caught using racial slurs
Video streamer Matt Rowan was caught using a racial slur on a hot mic while members of a girls basketball team were kneeling during the national anthem. Clay Horning/The Transcript
An Oklahoma sports announcer was captured during a livestream directing racial slurs and expletives toward members of a girls high school basketball team who were kneeling during the national anthem.
The racist comments came shortly after Norman High basketball players knelt during the playing of the national anthem before a quarterfinal state tournament game against Midwest City at Sapulpa High School in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
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An announcer issued an apology after making racist comments toward an Oklahoma high school basketball team that knelt during the national anthem, blaming the slip on low blood sugar.
The announcer s off-screen comments, shared in a video posted to Twitter on Friday, were uttered after he noticed members of the Norman High School basketball team kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner on Thursday evening, the
“They are kneeling? F - them,” the announcer, Matt Rowan, is heard saying as the national anthem is played. “I hope Norman gets their ass kicked. Fucking n -s.” I hope they lose, he added. C mon, Midwest City. They re gonna kneel like that? Hell no.
Rowan, who says he was at one time a youth pastor, released a written statement Friday evening.
âDuring the Norman High School girls basketball game against Midwest City, I made inappropriate and racist comments believing that the microphone was off; however, let me state immediately that is no excuse, such comments should have never been uttered,â Rowan said in the statement.
â. I have not only embarrassed and disappointed myself I have embarrassed and disappointed my family and my friends.
âI will state that I suffer Type 1 Diabetes and during the game my sugar was spiking. While not excusing my remarks it is not unusual when my sugar spikes that I become disoriented and often say things that are not appropriate as well as hurtful. I do not believe that I would have made such horrible statements absent my sugar spiking.