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Oklahoma QB Murray apologizes for anti-gay tweets

The Sports Xchange

December 09, 2018 at 10:32 am.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray apologized Sunday morning after homophobic tweets he made in 2011-12 surfaced, hours after he won the Heisman Trophy.

Murray was 14 and 15 years old when he posted an anti-gay slur on a few occasions while tweeting at his friends. The tweets in question were deleted from Murray’s account late Saturday night.

“I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15. I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group,” Murray wrote in a tweet posted at 3:11 a.m.

Murray is the latest athlete to see offensive tweets from his past come to light, joining Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Hader had racist and homophobic tweets surface during the MLB All-Star Game and Allen had racist tweets come to light prior to being drafted.

The now-21-year-old Murray claimed college football’s most coveted award on Saturday night in New York after passing for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns while accounting for nearly 5,000 total yards in leading the Sooners into the College Football Playoff this season.

Murray received 2,167 total points and 517 first-place votes. Alabama sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa finished second with 1,871 points, the highest total for a runner-up, and 299 first-place votes. Ohio State redshirt sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins was a distant third in the voting with 783 points.

“This is crazy,” Murray said after receiving the award. “This is an honor. Something that I’ll never forget, something I’ll always cherish for the rest of my life.”

The 5-foot-9 Murray follows Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield in taking home the award. Mayfield went on to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and is now the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns as a rookie.

Murray might have a chance to follow in Mayfield’s footsteps, but he was selected in June as the ninth overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft by the Oakland Athletics and has said he plans to pursue a career in the sport next year. Murray has received a $4.66 million signing bonus from the Athletics earlier this year.

“Kyler has agreed and the A’s agreed to a baseball contract that gave him permission to play college football through the end of the collegiate season,” agent Scott Boras told NFL Media. “After that, he is under contract to play baseball. That is not a determination to make. It’s already done.”

Murray has at least one game remaining for No. 4 Oklahoma (12-1) in a CFP semifinal against Tagovailoa and Alabama (13-0).

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