Virginia Tech Women's Lacrosse Coach Apologizes After Players Were Filmed Singing the N-Word
Virginia Tech women's lacrosse coach John Sung told Mark Berman The Roanoke Times his team is "trying to do what's right" after a video showing members of the team chanting the N-word was released.
In the video, members of the team can be heard saying the N-word while singing along to the song "Freaky Friday" by rapper Lil Dicky, featuring Chris Brown. The video is 13 seconds and was originally posted on Snapchat by one of the members of the team before being uploaded to YouTube Sunday.
"This isn’t something that we sweep under the rug," Sung told The Roanoke Times. "The team is extremely sorry. They’re trying to make it right. And I know that we’ll never make it right with anybody, but … this is a moment that defines this program but yet a moment that will help this program be better."
Sung added that "this is a teachable moment" and "there is no malice involved," explaining "they're good kids that made a bad decision."
In a statement released Monday, Sung said the video was taken after the No. 17 Hokies defeated Elon on Saturday and the team is "engaged in conversations within the campus community to share our sincere apology."
"They’ve got to be educated to make better decisions," Sung told The Roanoke Times. "They’ve got to know what’s socially acceptable, and I think they’re learning all those things. It’s a lot on me as the leader. People forget—I’m a minority."
The video below contains graphic language.
The video was also posted on Twitter, and according to Deadspin, a person claiming to be the player who uploaded the video on Snapchat reached out to the person who tweeted the video asking for the tweet to be deleted.
