McMackin Slur

McMackin must feel like a victim of the old bait-and-switch routine. On Thursday, he apologized for describing one of Notre Dame's traditions with a gay slur during the Western Athletic Conference media preview. He then dropped the slur a couple of more times as he winked at the media, asking them not to publicize his comment, even though in repeating it multiple times he made it obvious he really didn't have a problem tossing the word around.

In his apology, he said he didn't mean any harm, but that he was just trying to be funny, "and it wasn't funny and it's not funny. Even more, it isn't funny to me." Of course he thought it was funny. You can hear him enjoying his own joke on the audio track. But, more tellingly, you can hear the outburst of laughter from some of the media members in the room each time he drops the slur.

I've been around sports as a participant, fan and/or journalist all my life, so a football coach throwing around a homophobic slur is not news to me. Quite frankly, it isn't news to anyone, really. But the people in the room who egged him on with their laughter are the real story. A room full of educated, supposedly sensitivity-trained media professionals taking delight in McMackin's slurs. If I were him, I would have noted the laughter in the room during my apology, because if I'm going to be labeled homophobic by members of the press, I'm taking some of them down with me.