University of Hawai’i head football coach Greg McMackin was suspended without pay for 30 days and will take a voluntary 7 percent pay cut from his $1.1 million salary after he used a gay slur during a Western Athletic Conference press conference yesterday in Salt Lake City, school officials announced.
McMackin, who will lose approximately $169,000, will be allowed to coach the team “as a volunteer” during the suspension, and the money from his suspension will be used to fund an intern for a gay/lesbian group as well for other awareness efforts, according to UH athletic director Jim Donovan.
“I just made a big mistake,” McMackin said at a press conference yesterday. “I apologize to everyone and anyone I offended. I’m committed to do whatever I can as a life lesson to learn from my mistake.”
McMackin left the press conference without taking any questions.
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McMackin ignited a firestorm of national outrage when he repeatedly used the slur in his press conference with football writers at the Western Athletic Conference Football Media Review in Salt Lake City. before apologizing.
The subject of the speech was the Hawaii Bowl last year, where the Hawaiian players performed a Polynesian haka. Notre Dame had their own version, which attracted the scorn and derision of McMackin and his players.
The full text of the speech as follows:
I’ll never do this again. He had his guys. “We do something special at Notre Dame,” he said, and they get up and they do this little cheerlead like this, you know, this little faggot dance. You remember Jason and Steven. So my guys were looking at me, you know they’re all looking and all trying not to laugh so I gave them the… don’t write that faggot thing. I was misquoted.
Anyway, uh… you know, I gave them the shotgun so our guys get up and it was the best shotgun I’ve ever seen, I mean they’re on their cheer and they had beads on, they’re ripping their beads off. I mean, it was a little scary. But I think Notre Dame watched that and said we’d better have ourselves ready, because they’re gonna play some big D and we can’t take that away. Our quarterback was on fire.
I went out and challenged the last play of the half because there’s no way that guy could have caught it. We had two guys on him and he caught it out of bounds with his toes in. It was just great execution.
So anyway, please, last year you covered for me as far as I recruit, cover for me, oh yeah, say faggot dance. Please cover for me on that too, right Carl? I’ll deny it. Anything else?
In case you weren’t counting, that was 3.
