Now Neil Francis is saying he’s sorry.
The former Ireland rugby star caused outrage after saying – among other things – that gay people have no interest in sport.
He had been asked to react to US football player Michael Sam’s decision to come out as gay before entering the NFL draft.
After questioning Sam’s motivation for coming out, Francis said: ‘If you’ve ever sat down with, y’know, homosexual people, and asked them what their interests are, very often they have no interest in any kind of sport. That’s my experience from sitting down with them; I’ve done it on a regular basis.’
Francis, who played for the national team between 1987 and 1996 and is now a sports journalist and broadcaster, said then that he didn’t care how his comments would be received.
‘A lot of people would sort of say, well, y’know, y’know sort of what you’ve said really is stereotyping, but y’know, I don’t care. I’m here. I’m gonna express an opinion.’
Francis apparently cares now.
‘Some of the points I tried to make were very clumsily made and my language and the analogies I tried to make were quite poor and poorly expressed, and it’s unusual for me not to be able to articulate myself. In this instance, I was unable to do so,’ he said on Today FM‘s The Last Word program.
He added: ‘Listening to what I said, on reflection, I probably said the wrong things and some of the things I said were extremely clumsy. On reflection, I would like to withdraw those comments and apologize profusely and unreservedly.’
Article source: http://www.3news.co.nz/Samoa-beats-Scotland-for-1st-time-in-rugby-test/tabid/415/articleID/300785/Default.aspx
Former Ireland rugby star who claimed "homosexual people" have no interest in ...
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