A University of North Alabama football player who posted a racist tweet after President Barack Obama pre-empted "Sunday Night Football" has been booted from the team.
The first quarter of the game was interrupted by NBC to carry Obama speaking at a memorial service in remembrance of the 27 people who were killed in Friday’s shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn.
An upset Bradley Patterson posted a tweet saying, “Take that n****r off the tv, we wanna watch football!”
Because of Patterson’s racist tweet, he was thrown off the football team, according to a tweet from the university’s athletic director, Mark Linder. The information was confirmed to a reporter at Al.com.
Linder’s tweet said:
The Birmingham News reports that Patterson was a walk-on long snapper who joined the North Alabama team in the fourth week of the season.
Patterson’s Twitter account sported the handle @2A_HogOfTheYear, referring to the 2A division the football team is in. His account has since been closed.
Although Patterson’s tweet was particularly insensitive, it was one of many in the same vein. Despite the overwhelming tragedy hanging over the memorial service in Connecticut, a huge number of Twitter users decided they would rather be watching football than Obama’s speech.
Sports site
Deadspin collected a bunch of the unmoved, often racist tweets laced with the n-word.
“Obama can eat s***, trying to make a speech during the football game. Unacceptable,” twitter user @Hunter_Aaron posted.
“F*** you #obama and your stupid speech, interrupting # nfl. #eyehateyou,” user @Q_ManHammer wrote.
Obama spoke for less than 20 minutes and the football game was broadcast on two other NBC stations (NBC Sports Network and CNBC) during the speech.
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