Kyler Murray celebrated his Heisman Trophy win in New York on Saturday night, but not long after the Oklahoma quarterback found himself playing defense.
Murray issued an apology via Twitter for using homophobic slurs in social media messages that remained active into the early hours of Sunday morning. Those Twitter posts have since been deleted following Murray's statement.
"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 said.
The since-deleted tweets had a timestamp that indicate the posts were from a 15-year-old Murray.
The Heisman night social media sting is the latest in a trend of resurfacing the existing social media activity, however dated, of athletes following major achievements.
Villanova Final Four Most Outstanding Player Donte DiVincenzo spent part of the national championship postgame clarifying why insensitive rap lyrics were used on his Twitter feed. DiVincenzo left Villanova and was a first-round pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Another top-10 pick, Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, had his high school Twitter activity exposed the night before the NFL draft. Allen apologized for the racist posts from his personal account from 2012 and 2013.
Murray, also an OU baseball player drafted ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in July, plans to report to spring training in 2019 after his collegiate football career concludes, though some have suggested he might opt to head to the NFL instead.
"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," Boras said this week over the phone. "After that, he is under contract to play baseball. That is not a determination to make. It's already done."
No. 4 Oklahoma plays No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Dec. 29.
--Field Level Media