Putting a college football coach in front of a microphone is usually like handing a bear a calculator and asking him to do your taxes. Nothing good can come of that. Hawaii head coach Greg McMackin proved that once again this morning at the WAC football media preview in Salt Lake City, when he let loose with a homophobic slur in reference to Notre Dame. Oops.
(That’s McMackin on the right. I think)
McMackin’s perfect s***storm began when he told a small group of reporters how Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis had the Fighting Irish do “this little faggot dance” at a banquet the night before last year’s Hawaii Bowl. But the fun didn’t stop there.
McMackin then asked the reporters not to report what he had said. And because reporters will always abandon a juicy story when a coach asks them to, that was the end of that (laugh track). No, really, the quote was bouncing virally about the web within minutes.
So then McMackin took to the stage again to formally apologize to everyone (some days it just never pays to get out of bed. Especially when you find yourself in Utah).
The original quote:
McMackin said Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis got up at the banquet and told the crowd, “We do something special at Notre Dame.”
“And they get up and they do this little cheer, like this,” McMackin said Thursday, doing a rhythmic clap. “You know, this little faggot dance.”
The attempted coverup:
“I want to officially, officially apologize,” McMackin said. “Please don’t write that statement I said as far as Notre Dame. The reason is, I don’t care about Notre Dame. But I’m not a — I don’t want to come out and have every homosexual ticked off at me. You know what I mean. Because I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. But I apologize for saying that and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t run that word. If you said dance, that’s OK. But don’t use the bad term that I chose, please. Thank you.”
And, The Prestige:
“I would sincerely like to apologize for the inappropriate verbage, words that I used,” he said. “… I’m really ticked off at myself for saying that. I don’t have any prejudices and it really makes me mad that I even said that and I’m disappointed in myself. … What I was trying to do was be funny and it’s not funny and even more it isn’t funny to me. I was trying to make a joke and it was a bad choice of words and I really — I really, really — feel bad about it and I wanted to apologize. I’m going to apologize to my team. I’m going to apologize to the people in Hawaii.”
Of course it’s easy to feel superior about your dancing skills when your team can do this:
But this went too far; especially the ham-handed attempt at a coverup.
“Just please … cover for me,” McMackin said Thursday. “Go ahead, say ‘faggot dance.’ No. Please cover for me on that, too — right Karl? I’ll deny it. Anything else?”
Yeah coach. Here’s the audio.
4:39 pm on July 30th, 2009
He apologized. Why is this even a story???
4:49 pm on July 30th, 2009
Why are you busting his balls? You know he meant it as a way to say the dance was ‘girlie’, for lack of a better word. He caught himself and apologized. You’re just like everyone else in the media, Brooks, blowing sh*t up out of absolutely nothing. Disappointed.
5:11 pm on July 30th, 2009
Um, he said “faggot”, a pretty offensive slur. Right in front of reporters. Even if he did apologize, it’s a story because he said it in the first place.
10:32 pm on July 30th, 2009
Who cares? If it’s a faggoty dance, then call a spade a spade? Free speech, kids…..
12:03 am on July 31st, 2009
Boy those kids w/ the “faggy” dance steps sure put a whoppin’ on his RAINBOW warriors.
1:21 am on July 31st, 2009
Me and my boyfriends are the true Rainbow Warriors at our Colorado Police Department!
9:31 pm on July 31st, 2009
Just because you have right to say something doesn’t mean you should say it. Language is the single most powerful and influential part of culture - the mere use of that word, even if it’s not meant in a specifically homophobic sense (and I don’t see how it could not be), strikes a myriad of poisonous, ignorant social chords that only serve to propagate anti-gay sentiment.
As a public figure, Mcmackin should have known better than to use that kind of language and makes me wonder if he would tolerate such equally hateful slurs tossed against him and his team? Somehow I think not.