Mississippi State Coach Mike Leach Tweets Lynching Joke, Apologizes

Leach a long history of posting inflammatory material online

Mike Leach Tweets Lynching Joke, Apologizes
College football coach Mike Leach. (Abbie Parr/Getty)
Getty Images

A college football coach with a long history of posting inflammatory material online and being outspoken in interviews has apologized for an offensive meme he shared on Twitter.

Earlier in the week, Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach posted a quarantine-related tweet that depicted an elderly woman knitting a noose with the hangman’s knot already tied.

Leach has deleted that tweet, but it’s preserved here, via WJTV:

Before it was deleted, Leach’s tweet drew criticism from several Bulldogs players and an assistant professor at the school. Instead of responding with emojis like many of the players did, MSU assistant sociology professor Margaret A. Hagerman tweeted back at Leach that “lynching ‘jokes’ are incredibly offensive anywhere” and “especially in Mississippi.”

After deleting the tweet, Leach apologized. He tweeted Thursday, “I sincerely regret if my choice of images in my tweets were found offensive. I had no intention of offending anyone.”

The coach clearly does enjoy his Twitter account … whether it’s funny or not.

It’s not a great start for Leach at MSU as the 59-year-old was just hired in January to replace Joe Moorhead after coaching at Washington State for eight seasons.

Leach’s off-field choices may have at least partially led to his departure from Washington State as normal school donors threatened to withhold millions in donations after the football coach tweeted a fake video of a speech from former President Barack Obama in June of 2018.

Prior to going to Washington State, Leach was Texas Tech’s coach from 2000-09.

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