Kasey Funderburg Responds After Losing Job Over Tweets (Photos)
Kasey Funderburg Responds After Losing Job Over Tweets (Photos)
College football reporter Kasey Funderburg made headlines last week after losing her job due to a series of unfortunate tweets.
Adding insult to injury, her racially-charged messages were only uncovered because of an effort on her part to call out others for not being racially sensitive.
Funderburg, who is said to have resigned amid the backlash to the full extent of her social media activity being uncovered, has been radio silent ever since.
This week, that changed. In a statement, she finally responded to everything that has transpired over the last few days.
“The comments I tweeted as a high school student were unacceptable and ignorant,” read the statement. “I sincerely apologize for using offensive language and to anyone I hurt or offended with those remarks. I take full responsibility for my actions. This language is not appropriate in any context and has not been part of my vocabulary since then.
“At the University of Tennessee, I worked in the athletic department and joined the University’s Diversity and Inclusion group which afforded me the opportunity to learn additional valuable lessons about the viewpoints of people from different races, cultures, and countries, as well as the strength that such diversity provides,” she added.
Funderburg will no doubt serve as a cautionary tale for many. Although her initial intentions may have been noble, she would have been far better off saying nothing. Or at the very least, ensuring that the skeletons in her own closet weren’t so easy to find.
Fortunately, it seems like she has a big Instagram following and will likely be able to get back on her feet in some capacity based on the strength of her engagement alone:
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Obviously Funderburg isn’t the first or last reporter to get caught up like this. NFL insider Annie Agar also found herself trouble when her past tweets came to light. Somehow, she was able to weather the storm, though.
This has been an insane year for the Tennessee sports scene. Putting Saturday’s disappointing effort against Georgia aside, it feels like it has been one crazy news item after another.
The wild cheerleader video that trended on Saturday; a fan yelling so loud her shirt popped off; the entire college football world waking up to how hot the Tennessee female football fans are. All of that just happened over the past couple of months.
In fact, there is a fair case to be made that with everything happening in Tennessee sports, Funderburg will become old news by next week.
LSU star Olivia Dunne takes aim at Alabama in her new video. https://t.co/F0N4dJh57a
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 5, 2022
Nevertheless, hopefully other young media personalities learn from her mistakes and don’t repeat them.
Will Funderburg get another shot at sports reporting in the near future?
Time will tell.
Related: Kate Upton’s Encounter With Phillies Fan Goes Viral (Video)
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
