Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach apologized Thursday for a meme he tweeted on Wednesday, saying he “sincerely regrets” if anyone found the image offensive.
The tweet, posted Wednesday, was deleted but showed a picture of a woman knitting a noose. The caption read, “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf.”
“I sincerely regret if my choice of images in my tweets were found offensive,” he tweeted. “I had no intention of offending anyone.”
The meme didn’t go over well.
According to The Clarion-Ledger, senior linebacker Erroll Thompson, redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Fabien Lovett, senior defensive end Kobe Jones and Margaret A. Hagerman, an assistant professor of sociology at Mississippi State, all took exception to the meme because of the depiction of a lynching.
This isn’t the first time Leach has deleted a tweet since he started in Starkville.
In February, he was critical of Mitt Romney during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Still, memes have been the rage since the coronavirus pandemic has put the nation on lockdown. AL.com has done a series of “moments of levity” over the past few weeks. The topics, however, have been focused on less controversial things like toilet paper. Then, it moved toward online and distance learning. Finally, the meme game took aim at test kits and social distancing.
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Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.