Steve Spurrier tweets support for the removal of the Confederate flag
A day after South Carolina governor Nikki Haley called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds in Columbia, S.C., South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier took to Twitter to say the governor had the full backing of the football program.
The South Carolina football team, players and coaches strongly support Governor Haley's decision to remove the flag from the capitol.
— Coach Steve Spurrier (@SC_HBC) June 23, 2015
Spurrier is really the last major figure from the University of South Carolina to weigh in on the recent debate over the use of the Confederate flag. University president Harris Pastides, athletic director Ray Tanner and even basketball coach Frank Martin all used their Twitter accounts to stand in opposition of the flag.
Even former South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw weighed in tweeting: “Any flag that contradicts everything our Country flag represents, it shouldn't fly. We ALL stand united.”
The decision to call for the removal of the flag was prompted by a racially motivated massacre of nine African-American churchgoers in a historically black church. The alleged gunman posed with the flag while spewing racists remarks on his website.
Since Haley’s declaration, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he was taking steps to remove the Confederate flag from license plates and Mississippi speaker of the House, Philip Gunn, called for the Confederate emblem to be removed from his state’s flag.
Also, major distribution companies such as Walmart and Amazon have stopped selling merchandise with Confederate flags.
While this is the first time Spurrier has commented about this particular movement, he’s expressed strong feelings about the Confederate flag in the past. In 2007, he noted that it should be removed from the statehouse.
"I realize I'm not supposed to get in the political arena as a football coach, but if anybody were ever to ask me about that damn Confederate flag, I would say we need to get rid of it," Spurrier said. "I've been told not to talk about that. But if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I certainly wish we could get rid of it."
For more South Carolina news, visit GamecockCentral.com.
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