A college basketball coach issued an apology Tuesday after making an analogy about plantations during a Feb. 27 post-game team huddle.
Following a loss against Xavier, Creighton University coach Greg McDermott gave his team a pep-talk during which he made racially insensitive remarks.
“Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation,” he said during the post-game locker room huddle. “I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
McDermott admitted to uttering the remarks in a tweet in which he addressed his “egregious mistake.”
After a toss lough, he made a “terribly inappropriate analogy,” said McDermott, who’s been a coach at the school since 2010.
“I have never used that analogy and it is not indicative of who I am as a person or coach,” he wrote. “I am deeply sorry.”
McDermott added that he issued apologies to his players, many of whom are Black, as well as his fellow staff members.
“I realize the pain that my words have caused,” he said. “I am committed to ensure that this will never happen again.”
The private Jesuit university in Omaha, Neb., issued a statement of their own in which they condemned McDermott for his “deplorable” words.
“While we believe this was out of character for Coach McDermott, in no way does it diminish the fact that his remark was hurtful to many and has absolutely no place in the Creighton community,” the statement read.
It continued saying, “We have offered our full and unconditional support to those affected by his words.”
The university concluded their statement by saying any disciplinary action taken against McDermott would “remain confidential.”