Terrelle Pryor catches a pass in the end zone for a touchdown during the game against the Chiefs on October 2. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The National Football League is investigating after a Washington Football Team player says a Kansas City Chiefs fan repeatedly called him the n-word, which prompted the player to flip the bird and yell expletives after Monday’s game.
NFL spokesperson Joe Lockhart said on Thursday that officials are investigating the incident and the league doesn’t tolerate racist language from fans, who can be banned from stadiums for using racial slurs, according to The Washington Post.
TMZ posted a video on Wednesday of Terrelle Pryor yelling the F-bomb and raising his middle finger at the crowd as he walked into the tunnel after the game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
The wide receiver, who plays for a team whose name is currently a dictionary-defined slur, said that the outburst was in response to repeatedly hearing the n-word from a Chiefs fan during the game. After holding up his helmet in the air, Pryor was restrained by a staffer and walked away.
In a post on Instagram Stories, Pryor apologized to his team and the NFL, but said that the fan deserved the reaction. “But as I walked in tunnel hearing someone call me a [n-word] and say F you to me. Me flicking the person off is more deserving. I do apologize to my teammates and the organization. But at some point you keep calling us the n-word, we going to start acting up.”
He also pointed out that although his team chose not to kneel during the National Anthem this week, which some players did at a previous game, being called a racial slur several times “is the exact reason why” players are doing it across the league.
Two witnesses behind the sideline told The Washington Post that there was a fan in a Chiefs jersey who shouted racial slurs toward Washington players, but didn’t call out Pryor specifically.
NFL spokesperson Lockhart told reporters on a call that they are looking into “all aspects” of the situation and “we have no tolerance for racial remarks directed at anyone in an NFL stadium,” according to The Post.
As Deadspin writer Nick Martin points out, the move smacks of irony when talking about a team whose name is not permitted under many publications’ (including ours) style guidelines:
Native Americans like myself who are more concerned with issues like abject poverty, food deserts, alcoholism, and the stark refusal of both the federal government and U.S. citizens to fully accept their responsibility to help or even pay attention to their fellow human beings past a single pipeline protest will continue to be ignored by the NFL as it hollowly boasts that the league has “no tolerance for racial comments directed to anyone.”
