A Twitter account associated with Florida State University’s football program caused a bit of an online kerfuffle Monday, when it posted a graphic celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Social media accounts associated with sports programs post such graphics quite often these days, including for MLK Day. A number of other programs around the country pulled off a nod to the civil rights leader without any controversy.
That was not the case for Florida State’s @FSU_Recruiting account, which posted a King quote along with the program’s “Do Something” motto. The image it created featured Dr. King in an FSU wide receivers glove, appearing to make the signature school celebration “tomahawk chop” hand motion.
How many people gave this tweet the green light before somebody actually got to hit the publish button on it? pic.twitter.com/gDNbdcXn8r
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) January 21, 2019
As NBC Sports reports, the tweet was very quickly ridiculed and mocked. Ultimately, it was deleted after about 45 minutes.
The account issued a new tweet shortly after, apologizing for “missing the mark.”
— Seminoles Recruiting (@FSU_Recruiting) January 21, 2019
Social media often lands athletes, particularly high school and college-aged ones, in hot water. But this incident just goes to show that even professionally managed accounts can sometimes make a mistake.
