Spurrier: Take that damned flag down

I love Charleston. It's one of my favorite cities in America. Love, love, love that place.

And if you're speaking of Newport, Tenn., well ... it's not the finest place the state has to offer. We all have them. That's one of ours. One of the prettiest geographical areas in America, but full of racists.

 

I retract my statement about the elephant having a racist story behind it. It's been years since I heard the story, but I just looked it up and it was about an elephant that was hanged in Erwin, Tenn. What made me think it had to do with race, I'll never know.

 

Hey JJIT you are way behind on that debate. Check your SportsJournalists.com archives.

 

thanks to those who replied for my benefit on this topic. the flag and what it stands for always has intrigued me, but it's a subject you simply can't google and walk away with the full impact.

it's obvious not too many folks who grew up in the south hold indifferent feelings concerning the flag.

 

When I was in college there was a football player on campus who regularly waved the Confederate flag at basketball games in an attempt to rile up the crowd. He was well known on campus because his father was quite prominent in the football business.

This player is now in upper management of an NFL team. I'll bet he's awfully glad there weren't video cameras and You Tube around back in the day or he'd have some explaining to do.

 

This was inevitable.
http://www.thestate.com/188/story/36411.html

Love the Imus reference.

 

wow.

 

Would he settle for toothless redneck hos?

 

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I don't know either, but it's a helluva story.

 

Gettin' a gummer while drivin' a Hummer...it's the American way.

 

Where I'm from, yes.

 

I appreciate that the flag is part of southern heritage, but folks who display the flag also need to understand the negative connotations it has grown to symbolize with its use by the Klan and Nazis. The swastika was an ancient symbol long before Hitler, but I doubt anyone would be caught dead waving a Nazi flag at a football game. You don't see Russian flags over the Alaskan capital or the Mexican flag over the California capital. Hey Confederates - you are in America now. If you don't love America why don't you leave. The War is over and Sherman dropped the big one.
Props to Spurrier for the brave stance (especially in South Carolina, the reddest of Red States) - too often coaches are considered brave just for supporting the BCS!