I’m
not on Twitter. I don’t tweet nor do I follow those who do. I manage to say enough
stupid things without access to yet another outlet that seems designed for
people to say stupid things. Like the old line about NASCAR, I think most
people follow tweets waiting for a car crash to happen.
Spikes
is insisting that his homophobic/arachnophobic tweet was “a
joke.” We should all just chill out. Okay. Brandon Spikes is a professional
football player, not an elected official, not a spokesman for a political
party, not a captain of industry or a religious leader for any of the major
world religions. Should we be surprised that a professional football player is
homophobic? Does that mean we should just shrug it off?
I
don’t think so.
By
the time this has been posted, Brandon Spikes may have realized that telling us
all we were too dumb or sensitive to get the joke wasn’t really where he should’ve
gone. Maybe he will have posted the apology he needs to make.
I
hope it isn’t one of those “If I hurt anyone’s feelings…” non-apology
apologies.
Just
say, “I’m sorry.”
Just
say, “My words were thoughtless and hurtful and I apologize to those I
offended.”
Just
say, “I’m not a perfect person but I will learn from this and strive to do
better. I hope those that I hurt can forgive me.”
At
the very least, admit it wasn’t a very good joke.
It's been a few days now, and I haven't heard anything else out of Spikes or the Pats. Has anyone else? As a diehard Pats fan this REALLY bothers me. This is the sort of stuff that somehow Belichick keeps his players from doing. Also, if someone Tweeted a joke making fun of Jews, no one would call it "Jewiphobic." They would call it - and correctly so - Anti-Semtic, meaning ANTI-Jewish and hateful towards Jewish people. Just because Spikes used the word "homophobic" in his Tweet, it doesn't mean that it is merely homophobic (although he is clearly also that), it is primarily anti-gay, and hateful towards gay people. He should apologize, and your brief-but-BS-free recommendations in this post are spot on. I'm not exactly sure why, but I know this to be true...Kathy Griffin and Mario Cantone are allowed to make gay jokes. Pro football players are not.
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