Intent matters, and Gary Patterson can’t ever say that word
TCU linebacker Dylan Jordan, you buried the lede.
In a rant the redshirt player posted on social media on Monday, Jordan waited until the 200th word to drop the allegation that TCU head coach Gary Patterson used the N-word around him. The post was 270 words.
Before the potential career-altering allegation, Jordan wrote about playing time. He wrote about how Patterson basically made fun of him, and then chewed him out for essentially what amounts to acting like a child.
Then Jordan recited this part of an exchange with Patterson, where he alleges the TCU coach told him, “You’ve been saying [N-word, word deleted] in the meeting room.”
If Jordan’s post is accurate, Patterson was justifiably admonishing the kid for using the word.
Near the end of the post, Jordan said Patterson addressed the team by saying, “I wasn’t calling him a [N-word, word deleted].”
A white dude saying that to a room full of young Black men, even with benign intent, is cringe worthy.
Intent matters, and in this threatening post Jordan does not say that Patterson used the word in the vile way it can be used by someone who is not Black.
While intent counts, so does the reality that this will forever remain a word that us white folk must avoid.
There is no harmless way to recite it, even for the purposes of explaining a point, singing a lyric, or trying to coach up a kid.
You’d think that after all of these years we’d know better, but ...
Gary Patterson is 60, has been around athletics his entire life, and so he has to know this.
This all was revealedearlier Monday when former TCU player Niko Small Tweeted that Patterson used the word. Small later deleted the Tweet, but he said he stands by it.
(How does one stand by something they delete?)
Jordan also said the TCU defensive players who are Black refused to participate in Monday’s practice.
Jordan finished his note by writing, “This behavior is not okay now or ever and there needs to be repercussions to these actions ... #BLM”
According to the order of issues here, Jordan’s priority is playing time. This is just another young football player whose college coach over-promised, perhaps embellished, his role. And the moment the player arrived on campus a different reality set in.
And, if true, Gary still can’t say that word.
Given the purpose of the conversations that Jordan describes, Patterson’s words don’t merit a firing.
They do merit a lecture, some embarrassment, and a heart-to-heart with some of his players. Much in the same way when Ice Cube sat down with Bill Maher, and explained that word is not his to use.
As is consistent with TCU in these situations, they all jumped into the bunker to figure out how to prepare a statement. Hours later after this got out, they’ve said zero, mostly because the players took to social media to explain it all.
It’s doubtful the statue of Patterson on TCU’s campus will come down, although these days you never know.
There is nothing about Gary’s resume that suggests he’s a vile racist loser who casually uses this word. There is plenty on his resume that suggests when his emotions grab him, he makes comments he should not.
This exchange sounds like a coach who used the worst word possible to coach a kid who doesn’t want to be told what to do. Then said coach made the same mistake in using that same word to explain that he didn’t “mean it that way.”
Gary is a Division I football coach, all of whom right now are all viewed through the same lens as de facto plantation owners who want to keep young Black men in the position of doing the field work while they rake in millions.
From an optics standpoint, none of these coaches can win. They are painted as control-freak hypocrites, because many of them fit that description.
Dylan Jordan taking to social media to air this subject is consistent with the state of the empowered student athlete.
From the likes of Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard calling out Mike Gundy, to all of the Pac-12 threatening to boycott, coaches now potentially have to answer to their superiors, and their soldiers.
Perhaps some genuine reform will come of this.
Gary Patterson should not be fired over this exchange, but a man his age has to know better. Don’t use the word.
Dylan Jordan, you had your moment, and you make a valid point.
Part of the repercussion you seek includes you growing up, and earning the playing time you seek.
