February 11, 2014
Kent State Suspends Wrestler Indefinitely for Anti-Gay Tweets About Michael Sam
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Officials from Ohio's Kent State University suspended a member of the school's wrestling team indefinitely for anti-gay tweets he made Monday about Michael Sam -- the football player who made international headlines for coming out on Sunday, CBS Cleveland reports.
"I can't even watch Sports Center today cause all they are talking about is Marcus Smart or that fag from Mizzou..." wrestler Sam Wheeler wrote on Twitter. CBS Cleveland reports that the athlete then tweeted to two other Twitter users with anti-gay slurs before writing, "O geez I got all these fag boys mad at me now."
Wheeler's tweets come just a day after NFL hopeful Michael Sam came out as gay. Wheeler, 20, also referred to Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart, who was suspended for three games after shoving a fan in the last few seconds of a game on Saturday.
"We are aware of the insensitive tweets by one of our student athletes," Joel Nielsen, Kent State director of athletics, said in a statement. "On behalf of Kent State University, we consider these comments to be ignorant and not indicative of the beliefs held by our university community as a whole. This is an educational opportunity for all of our student-athletes."
The tweets have since been deleted and Wheeler's account has been deactivated. LGBT site OutrageDC.com, however, took screenshots of the tweets, and urged readers to contact Kent University, the college's athletic director, and Wheeler's wrestling coach, Jim Andrassy.
"As an alum of Kent State University and as Sam's head coach, I was surprised and offended by what I read on Twitter," Andrassy said in a statement. "I have spoken to Sam personally, and while he is remorseful, he will be suspended indefinitely while we determine the best course of action moving forward."