An announcer for a live stream of an Oklahoma high school girls’ basketball team unleashed a racial tirade on a hot mic when the team kneeled for the national anthem.
The incident occurred on Thursday before the Norman High School-Midwest City quarter-final game in Sapulpa as the Star-Spangled Banner began to play. The broadcasters told their listeners on the NFHS Network stream they would return after a break and then one, apparently not realizing the audio was still live, used an expletive and the epithet as the Norman players knelt.
“They’re kneeling? Fuck them,” one of the men said. “I hope Norman gets their ass kicked … I hope they lose. C’mon Midwest City. They’re gonna kneel like that? Hell no.” He went on to call the players the N-word.
Matt Rowan, owner of OSPN, the third-party company that produced the telecast for NFHS, revealed on Friday afternoon that he was the speaker overheard during the anthem. He then blamed his behavior on hyperglycemia.
From The Guardian.
