… I wonder who he voted for…

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION TO DISCUSS POLITICS. THIS IS MERELY A CONTEXT JOKE.

I am very curious to know what he did to merit being kicked off the team. In light of the fact that Mack gave Lamarr Houston a second chance earlier this year (after a 1 game suspension), you have to assume that Buck did something really, really stupid.

Here’s an Excerpt from the ESPN article.

Burnette was listed as the Longhorns’ second-string center behind starter Chris Hall. Burnette had seen action in 20 games with the Longhorns, including one start. He had played in seven of the Longhorns’ nine games this season, missing the Colorado and Oklahoma games with an injury.

Freshman David Snow now will be the Longhorns prime reserve behind Hall going into Saturday’s game against Baylor.

But I trust Mack made the right call. Leaving him on the team could’ve been a bigger distraction. But we may never know.

Directed towards Obama.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/46/sporting-events/week-11-discussion-336723/

He said it himself that the comment was sent to him by a friend (whether you want to believe it or not) and it really isn’t that bad of a comment. Seriously, my Asian and Indian (Asian as well but whatever) say things 10x as racist (no they aren’t racist, they’re just Asian) in public every day. And if this is because it is a black/white racist moment, I’ll be pissed.

He doesn’t deserve it, but he still shouldn’t have posted a racist comment that someone else mentioned to him.

Between this and the film The Express (which has Texas as the racist team off the south against Ernie Davis), the University is developing a bad rep.

It’s a tough decision Mack had to make. Think about it. You’re the white, southern-born (they call Tennessee southern but wtf?) head coach of a very southern football program, and one of your white players publicly says something ridiculously racist that surely every one of his teammates saw on their creepy news-feed thing on Facebook. There really is no option. Trying to give him a second chance will look like Mack is sweeping it under the rug, and the risk that the team could divide itself over something like this is too great. Mack had to do this because of the position that he’s put in, as well as the fact that a member of the team expressed feelings that were hateful towards African-Americans, and therefore towards other members of the team. That’s the trick, here. He hurt the team, and so he’s gone. Tough, but fair.

I think Mack needs to sit down with the players somehow and make it clear to each of them that any action that threatens to hurt the unity of the team will be punished severely, and that’s why Buck is gone. He should explain exactly what happened and make sure that there are no unanswered questions from the players, as those will likely lead to whispers and rumors which can only bring bad things.

This sucks balls.

These kids know they’re under a microscope with no room for error, on and off the field. Buck exercised the worst judgment I’ve ever seen by posting that and has to pay the price.

There is no excuse to do such a dumb thing.

Best of luck to Buck.

delete your facebook, myspace etc.

50cent lyrics vs. Buck’s comments = no comparison

I think the punishment was right on. There’s no room for racial comments anywhere. Time for Buck to open his closed mind a little and think hard about what type of person he wants to be. Hopefully this will change his perspective on life and judgement. Good luck Buck.

The power of Social Media and the Internet. One bad decision can change your life forever…..

What if this facebook status belonged to McCoy’s facebook page?

Who here seriously thinks Mack Brown would’ve kicked him off the team?

I think Buck was kicked off the team because he was the backup center.

Is a lack of regard for the humanity of the target. Everyone’s life is just as valuable as anyone else’s and unfortunately some seem to be ignorant of or have forgotten that… and maybe some need to re-learn it. God did not make anyone of us any better than anyone else… we are all equal in His eyes and we should be in our own too. That’s one of the great principles of this country.

That said, I believe Buck when he says he is not a racist and I believe him when he says it was a stupid joke. However in this instance that “stupid joke” had the potentail to do a lot of damage far beyond the scope of just Buck’’s world… I am sure that at least some of his black teammates were insulted and appalled by it, and for the Team’s sake this is what had to happen. The Team’s chemistry was probably damaged or in danger of being so if Buck stayed. Mack Brown did the right thing and the the only thing he could have done.

This needs to be a valuable lesson for this young man… sometimes there are NO second chances in life… even for youthful stupidity.

I wish him well in his future wherever it takes him.

I don’t think Buck is a bad person, just a kid who is ignorant and fearful. With age, experience, and better mentors and peers in his personal life hopefully he can put this behind him. That said, Mack did the right thing. It sends a message to the team about unity, class, and image. Imagine for a minute if Colt said it. Despite loving him as a player and the impact on the field with no real back-up, I’d still want him gone too, because the legacy created from him getting away with that and staying would be inexcusable.

I probably would have met with a group of team leaders and, if it was okay with them, suspended Burnette for the rest of the season and the bowl game, and told him he has to earn his place back on the team starting in the off-season.
If his teammates felt him getting up at 6 a.m. each morning and running bleachers until he puked is necessary for him to show he is sorry, that is what he would do.

I would also have any player who wanted the opportunity meet with Buck and tell him exactly what their reaction was to that comment, and how it made them feel.

Buck may or may not believe African-Americans are inferior to other races (the definition of racism), but he needed to be educated about the harm such a comment can cause. Throwing him off the team is missing a tremendous opportunity to educate Buck, imo.

I can pretty much guarantee you that Buck has heard his African-American teammates use the “n-word”, either in jest with each other, repeating a rap lyric when singing, or possibly in anger at another African-American. This can cause confusion about the impropriety of using that word. I think having his teammates speak to Buck and having a discussion about this issue could have helped everyone involved. I understand Mack’s actions here, but I think he was too hasty. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

BTW, when I first read Buck’s message, I thought he was trying to make a poorly worded joke about a lynching, too. However, there may have been an ulterior meaning to his statement. There is a fear among some gun-owners (read:NRA) that Obama may try to restrict gun ownership. The “hunters, grab your guns” part of the message may have been meant as a message to fellow hunters. Combined with the second part of the message, it isn’t a threat of a lynching, it is a misguided message about the Second Ammendment, combined with a disgusting insult for our President-elect. That may have a worse intent than the lynching, though. It seems to me that if he was trying to talk about a lynching, he would have said, “Someone grab a rope….”.
I may be overanalyzing this issue, though.

“I thought the coaches did a good job on handling the situation,” Orakpo said. “My prayers are for him, but we’ve got to move on. Guys got to make better decisions for their future.”

- Orakpo

“I don’t really want to talk about it that much but I feel super sorry for him and I think the team does, too,” McCoy said. “I just told him to keep his head up. Things will blow over, things will get better. That’s a situation that’s tough.”

Team Leaders Speak Out