American football star Kyler Murray has apologised for tweets using the word “queer” just hours after he won the Heisman Trophy, which is given to the most impressive college player.
The 21-year-old University of Oklahoma quarterback wrote on Twitter, saying: “I apologise 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”
— Kyler Murray
“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.”
Most of the tweets have been deleted from the college star’s account, according to Deadline.
One which remains reads: “I guess ‘YOLO’ is a trending topic at Marcus… #queers.”
Kyler Murray is the latest star to have old anti-gay tweets resurface
The footballer, who is also a promising baseball player and was drafted ninth overall this year by the Oakland Athletics, has become the latest in a long line of celebrities to be faced with offensive historical posts they made on social media.
Last week, Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars and apologised for a series of homophobic tweets he wrote between 2009 and 2012.
After it emerged that Hart had called gay people “fags” and mocked lesbians in the posts, the 39-year-old comedian apologised and withdrew, saying he didn’t want to be a “distraction” from the awards event in February.
Other top sports figures like Murray have also been guilty of posting anti-LGBT messages online, such as American football coach Kyle Cox, who warned students not to “let a tweet ruin your chance” and was then suspended for his anti-gay and racist tweets.
The Texas Wesleyan University coach posted that he was “going to lose it” over a book about a gay duck, and also quoted someone describing going to Chick-fil-A “to show our disdain for the gays.”
“That doesn’t reflect on who I am as a person today. That’s just what it is”
— Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader
In August, Major League Baseball pitcher Michael Kopech admitted that he had deleted tweets calling people “gay,” “n****” and “a Mexican rapist version of Super Mario.”
