Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins died tragically on Saturday, and amongst the outpouring of sympathy came some wildly inappropriate remarks from former Dallas Cowboys’ executive Gil Brandt.
The vast majority of the sports world mourned the loss of the 24-year-old – who was sadly hit and killed by a dump truck on Saturday morning, when he inexplicably attempted to cross Broward County highway on foot – but Brandt had nothing nice to say about the former first-round draft pick.
Brandt, 90, appeared on SiriusXM’s NFL channel shortly after reports of Haskins’ death broke on Saturday. Rather than lamenting the loss of the former Washington Commanders QB, he callously described him as “a guy that was living to be dead.”
“You know, they told him don’t under any circumstances leave school early,” Brand snarked about Haskins’ decision to take a job with the Commanders during his junior year at Ohio State. “What’d he do? Left school early.”
“It’s a tragic thing, anytime anyone dies it’s tragic, especially when you’re 24 years old, you got your whole life ahead of you,” he continued. “But maybe if you just stayed in school a year he wouldn’t do silly things … jogging on a highway like that.”
Social media roared with criticism about the tactless remarks. Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward shot back “[Haskins] will be missed and your words are disgraceful.”
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette urged the NFL to “say something about this,” while fellow Buckeye and Super Bowl champ Darron Lee called for the removal of “Gil Brandt from the Hall of Fame. That’s inexcusable.”
Hours later, after being thoroughly raked through the coals, Brandt posted a public apology on Twitter.
“This morning while learning of Dwayne Haskins’ passing, I reacted carelessly and insensitively on a radio interview,” he wrote. “I want to apologize to Mr. Haskins’ family and anyone who heard my poor choice of words. I truly apologize. My heart goes out to his family at this difficult time.”
At the time of publishing, it is still unclear why Haskins, who was reportedly training in Miami with fellow Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky, attempted to cross the South Florida interstate.
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I guess I just don’t understand why an apology was necessary. He was simply saying what he thought about the tragedy of the death of the guy and the mistakes he made. He didn’t say anything about him being a wash out as an NFL QB or anything like that.