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3:51 pm PT – The man who made the racist comments apologizes for his words – and chalk it up to a diabetic episode.
We spoke to the 44-year-old Matt Rowan who admits it’s HIS voice making the insanely insulting comments about the girl’s basketball team while they kneeled for the national anthem.
“I’ll say I have type 1 diabetes and my sugar spiked significantly during the game,” Rowan said in a statement.
“While I don’t apologize for my remarks, it’s not uncommon for my sugar to spike, to become disoriented, and often to say things that are inappropriate and non-hurtful.”
Rowan adds, “I don’t think I would have made such terrible statements without my sugar tip.”
TMZ Sports spoke to Rowan, who added, “I am absolutely speechless at my rhetoric. I want to express my deepest apology to these girls for hurting them.”
“”[The N-word] should never be thought of much less muttered. “
Rowan says he doesn’t “want to hide behind diabetes” – and adds, “I want to take responsibility for my actions. Never my intention to hurt anyone. I’m sick of what I’ve said. I pretend sorry for what I said. “”
10:25 PT The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, which signed the announcers for the game, announced that the broadcast crew was pulled out of the rest of the tournament Thursday night while investigating the incident.
That’s disgusting.
An Oklahoma high school basketball announcer called the players “F *** ing n ***** s” for kneeling during the national anthem before a game that week … and it all got caught on a hot microphone .
It all went under before the Norman HS Girls Hoops team took on Midwest City during the Oklahoma 6A State Basketball Tournament Thursday night.
Each Norman player chose to kneel for the duration of the anthem … which led to the announcer’s outburst on the official live stream of the National Federation of State High School Association network. Here’s what we heard in the clip …
“You kneel? F *** ing n ***** s. I hope Norman gets a kick in the ass. F *** her. I hope her lose. Are you going to kneel like that?”
The clip has since made rounds on social media .. with NFL stars like Kenny Stills – who also kneels for the hymn – and Gerald McCoy speak out against the apparent racism.
“Amerikkka,” Stills tweeted Friday morning … while McCoy added, “See why we’re doing this!?! You still think it’s about the flag.”
Players on the Norman Girls Hoops team also spoke out against the announcer’s comments, saying, “That’s why we’re kneeling.”
Norman Superintendent Dr. Nick Migliorino tore up the “racist and hateful” comments in a scathing statement … and said, “We condemn and will not tolerate the disgusting words and attitudes of these announcers.”
“This type of hate speech has no place in our society and we are outraged that it is directed at everyone and especially our students.”
He added … “We fully support the right of our students to freedom of expression and our immediate focus is on helping these girls and their coaches and families, especially our black students and coaching staff.”
“It is tragic that the hard work and skill of this team is overshadowed by the heinous, malicious words of these people. We will do everything in our power to uplift and uplift our team and all those affected by this incident.”
According to Migliorino, Norman will use a different live streaming service for the remainder of the tournament … “as we have full confidence in their proven ability to respectfully support our student athletes.”
The NFHS network released a statement Friday morning saying it was “aggressively investigating” the incident and severing ties with those responsible.
“The NFHS network strongly condemns racism, hatred and discrimination and there is no room for that in college sports or anywhere else,” the network said.
“We sincerely apologize to the students, their families, and the entire community for making such ignorant comments during the broadcast.”
Originally published – 9:08 p.m. PT
