A top quarterback recruit in Florida has lost his scholarship after he posted a video of himself singing along with a rap song that contained the N-word.
Marcus Stokes of Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach apologized after the video surfaced, and the University of Florida pulled his scholarship.
“I was in a car listening to rap music, rapping along to the words and posted a video of it on social media,” he explained in another post on social media.
“I deeply apologize for the words in the song that I chose to say,” he added. “It was hurtful and offensive to many people, and I regret that. I fully accept the consequences for my actions and I respect the University of Florida’s decision to withdraw my scholarship offer to play football.”
The video was reportedly only about two seconds long, but that was enough for the University of Florida to drop Stokes.
TMZ reported that he had received other scholarship offers, but it is unclear if those were still available to him after this controversy.
Many people on social media supported Stokes and said the punishment was far too harsh.
“As a black professional graduate of UF, if this action results in taking a scholarship, then I have a few professors who I’d like to recommend lose their jobs. This is atrocious! Good luck bro. Smh this is sad and a sad day for UF,” responded one critic.
“As a black CFB fan, I really respect your maturity in taking responsibility for your mistake. But pulling your scholarship is too much; you’re young and UF went too far here,” read another reply.
“Clearly, a very dumb and not acceptable decision, but is ruining his life and not allowing him to play college football the answer? Educate. Don’t cancel,” said David Hookstead of OutKick Sports.