Yesterday, Hurricane Sports tweeted “Jacory Harris said he received tweets from people saying that UM doesn’t need a black quarterback.” Shortly after, the site tweeted, “Jacory: ‘A tweet like that almost brings you to tears. I put it out of my mind and move forward.’”
Last Tuesday head coach Randy Shannon forced his players to shut down their Twitter accounts; Jacory Harris shut his down on Wednesday morning. “Goal is to limit distractions and focus,” said the statement posted on the athletic department’s account, @hurricanesports.
We are unsure the real reason to why the football players were asked to stop using their accounts on this social network; was it really just to limit distractions? After receiving unnecessary racist tweets, it’s understandable why Shannon would make his players get rid of their Twitter accounts. According to a press conference yesterday, the racial comment directed at Harris had no bearing on Shannon’s decision.
What good comes out of criticizing and leaving inappropriate comments through a social network to a 20-year-old athlete who is juggling both the responsibilities of a student and a football player?
After our loss to Ohio State shouldn’t we be encouraging and cheering for our own quarterback? It’s a completely different story to sit behind a pseudonym (aka Twitter username) on the Internet and express the hatred and intolerance of another race. As a football player, he is constantly receiving criticism; why add uncalled for, racist comments to hurt him?
Although white athletes dominate the quarterback position, there is no reasonable excuse for these shameful comments directed towards Harris, or to anyone else.
Terelle Pryor of Ohio State University is a Heisman candidate. Michael Vick broke records and led Virginia Tech to the BCS title game in 1999. We should be focusing more on a quarterback’s running ability, field vision, ball handling and leadership not his race.
The Hurricane football team was the first program to recruit athletes from the inner city. We were progressive as a university in the 80s. Don’t let that change.
Editorials represent the majority view of The Miami Hurricane editorial board.