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 Norman Transcript reported.
“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.”
COLLEGE SUSPENDS PLAYERS FOR KNEELING DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM, CAUSING THEM TO FORFEIT GAME
The game was a championship match between Norman and Midwest City girls high school basketball teams.
In a press release Friday, Rowan apologized for his statements, calling them “inappropriate” and affirming he does not consider himself a racist.
The announcer who made the racist statements is partially blaming it on low blood sugar. pic.twitter.com/6cTwIZdJZI
— Dylan Goforth (@DGoforth918) March 12, 2021
“I will state that I suffer Type 1 Diabetes and during the game my sugar was spiking,” he said.
He noted he thought the microphone in the booth was turned off, adding, “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.”
Rowan is a member of a play-by-play crew contracted by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association to announce the game on a National Federation of High School Network online stream.
The OSSAA released a statement saying it would not use the crew for the rest of the season’s championship games.
“This type of hate speech has no place in our society and we are outraged that it would be directed at any human being, and particularly at our students,” Norman Public Schools Superintendent Nick Migliorino said in a statement to the Frontier.
Migliorino also said the school supports a student’s right to freedom of expression, regarding the team’s right to kneel during the anthem.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister told the outlet, “It is critical on all of us to be clear that racism has no place in society and must never be tolerated, especially in our public school.”
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The Washington Examiner reached out to the OSSAA and the NFHS but did not immediately receive a response.
