Marshall Henderson says he's studying reactions to homophobia for a friend

Marshall Henderson claims he was helping a friend by tweeting insensitive comments about Michael Sam. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty)

Former Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson isn't homophobic, he's just a really good friend.

At least, that's the story he told on Twitter this morning. After tweeting several homophobic comments about ESPN's coverage of Michael Sam being drafted into the NFL, Henderson was being attacked heavily on Twitter. He later said the tweets were planned to help a friend of his in some sort of vague class project. Henderson even went on to "thank" Michael Sam for "standing up and making this whole project possible."

It all began with this tweet around 9:30 a.m.:

And then, instead of backing down, Henderson doubled down with this rant:

And then came the real twist. Henderson said that he was helping one of his friends, "WHO IS GAY," and about to graduate in psychology. Here is a screengrab of his explanatory tweets. Read from the bottom, up.