British footballer Manny Smith is eating his words after a flurry of homophobic tweets toward an openly gay fan.
This past Friday, Smith (@manny_smith6), a Walsall Football Club player, started taunting a fan named Kevin Paddock (@yga_saddler), who says in his Twitter profile he’s “an openly gay man that watches Walsall FC.”
We’re not sure whether Paddock had a picture of himself for his profile picture (now it’s the Walsall FC’s team logo), but, in the tweets at right, Manny seemed quite fond of making fun of Paddock’s nose and earring, saying, “Ur defo a queer u belend!”
Apparently belend, more commonly spelled bellend, means “penis head” or “dick” in British slang.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Manny issued a public apology on the soccer team’s website:
I would like to publicly apologise to Kevin. The comments were borne out of frustration and were tweeted in the heat of the moment. I deeply regret them. I realise that, as a professional sports person, I am a role model and my conduct, both in person and via social networking sites, should reflect this.
I met with Kevin in person today and apologised to him face-to-face. He has kindly agreed that this will be the end of the matter.
I just want to concentrate on my football and help Walsall maintain our League One status. I apologise to all our supporters and everyone connected with the club for this unfortunate incident, especially when all the focus should be on yesterday’s deserved win over Wycombe.
We’re not sure if Smith promised to stop using anti-gay slang in his meeting with Paddock, but hopefully he went a little further than he did in this apology, which just sounds like he’s sorry he got caught. Smith will probably face a fine from the soccer authorities.
You’d think that athletes would be careful about tweeting homophobia, especially given two recent incidents: a hockey player who called the Foo Fighters “Foo Faggots” on Twitter and a soccer player who got fired for joking he’d have to “padlock [his] arse” if he were in the bed next to an openly gay rugby player.
Source: OutSports. Photos via Twitter, Manny Smith
Mark
foot in mouth disease is alive and well. Doesn’t any one ever teach these idiots to think before they speak, or tweet, as the case may be?
William
So it’s expected to drop homophobic slurs when it’s “Frustration”
I wonder if someone dropped the N word would they dare say it was out of “Frustration”
Sounds like a case of “Gay Panic” to me.
Robert in NYC
And of course, he never personally wrote the apology. I daresay his command of English isn’t that good either.
Chad
@William: It’s ok to say it as long as you apologize later for it….
Oh, ok.
Twitter is the worst thing to ever happen to celebrities.
Isaac C
It’s always nice when the black race uses gay slurs.
David
Brits have the most retarded slang. I don’t even understand most of his tweets.
CBRad
Twitter IS the worst thing for celebrities. Now we can all learn what dummies they are.
Kev Paddock
As the person in question is myself let me just confirm that Manny Smith gave me a heart felt apology which was accepted. Manny called me a queer in frustration and admitted he never knew I was openly gay. Maybe I’m easily acceptant but I guess people will only see the apologies and not the look in his eye when I confronted him about his outburst.
I did have a picture of myself on Twitter but removed it after the abuse.
Manny and myself have put this behind us now and are in frequent contact about kicking homophobia out of the game.
JayKay
Oh but I thought “queer” was the new term leftists were forcing on me because gay isn’t inclusive enough…
13Zeroither
I’m just curious, can you only say ‘queer’ if you are lgbt? And the same goes for ‘faggot’ as well.