USU football suspends player for “inappropriate racial comments”

Utah State University Athletics Director, John Hartwell, and head football coach, Gary Anderson, released a joint statement Sunday night in which they announced the suspension of a student-athlete.

“We have been made aware of inappropriate racial comments made by a current student-athlete on our football team. This will not be tolerated and we have suspended the individual immediately and pending an investigation will take appropriate action,” Hartwell and Anderson said in the statement put out on the athletics department’s social media accounts.

The athlete was not named in the statement, however, photos brought to life on social media show USU football offensive lineman Ty Shaw engaging in a conversation where he makes racial comments that drew the ire of many people.

Author’s note: Pictures contain vulgar language

Shaw started in nine games last season on the offensive line, appearing in all 13 of Utah State’s contests. His younger brother, Karter, also plays on the offensive line and started all 13 games for the Aggies.

Tony Jones of The Athletic reported that sources had told him USU football head coach, Gary Andersen, will meet with staff regarding the issue.

Sources: Utah State football coach Gary Andersen will have a meeting with his leadership committee tomorrow in reference to the student athlete who was suspended tonight for inappropriate online comments

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) July 6, 2020

The initial release of these screenshots opened the proverbial floodgates with multiple current and former Aggie football players sharing their thoughts, none of which bodes well for the state of USU’s football program in regards to how it handles racism in the locker room.

Devon Anderson, a former defensive lineman who finished his Aggie career this past year, said on Twitter: “honest doesn’t surprise me what’s happening at Utah State right now..” roughly an hour after the comments were first publicly available. Current defensive back, Troy Lefeged Jr., expressed a similar sentiment, saying: “Ain’t no surprise to me …at all” in a quote tweet which contained photos of Shaw’s comments.

honest doesn’t surprise me what’s happening at Utah State right now..

— Devon Anderson (@imNot_VONerable) July 6, 2020

Ain’t no surprise to me …at all https://t.co/7TgCqa9zcH

— Troy Lefeged Jr (@COUNTIES_HERO) July 6, 2020

Two other former players, safety Aaron Wade (2014-2018) and special teams ace, DJ Nelson (2014-2018) commented on the situation, Wade calling the athletics department to action over Shaw’s words and Nelson responding to Wade’s tweet, saying “Allow me to finally say the phrase we’ve all been waiting for: That. Ain’t It.”

@USUFootball What’s going on here!!🤦🏾‍♂️ somebody please handle this.. #disappointed pic.twitter.com/lP9uhYBT96

— Aaron Wade (@USU4Wade) July 6, 2020

Each of these four individuals who’ve spoken out thus far were teammates with Shaw for multiple years, Lefeged being a current teammate.

Both of Shaw’s Instagram and Twitter accounts have been deleted.

Later in the evening, Maizee Thompson put forth allegations involving Mike Blair, the Director of Equipment Operations at USU for nearly 25 years and an Assistant Athletics Director (in addition to his previous title) since 2016.

You know what else you should be investigating? The fact that a member of your staff (Bair, a white man) told @imNot_VONerable to “get back in line N***a” & then tried to silence him when he complained. https://t.co/fbXctT2Kjt

— vmht.❀ (@MaizeeThompson) July 6, 2020

Utah State has not commented on the allegations levied against Blair.

@statesmansports

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