Fan's Racist Slam of Coach Costs Him a Job

A fan of Florida State football is out of a job over a racist post he made about the team's coach. The unidentified fan superimposed the face of coach Willie Taggart onto an old photo of a black man being lynched, reports ESPN. Taggart is the school's first black coach, and the team isn't eligible for a bowl game for the first time in more than 30 years because of its 5-7 record. The racist post went up on a fan group page on Facebook and was eventually traced to the account of an employee for Hilton Grand Vacations, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. "The person responsible for posting this information has been terminated," says a Hilton spokeswoman. "His behavior was in violation of multiple company policies and the furthest example from being a reflection of our company’s values."

And it could get worse for him because police are investigating. “Any threat of violence to anybody in this community—he’s a father, a husband, and a member of our community—we’re going to investigate it to the fullest extent possible," says Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jack Campbell. Before it was deleted, the poster defended the image, responding to one critical commenter: "I'm dead F---ing serious. This is how far I'm willing to go to get rid of this clown," per Fox News. A fellow FSU fan deleted the post and blocked the poster's access to the group, adding that the man who put it up "started cursing me out" when contacted. Despite being deleted, the image began circulating on social media. (In Oregon, racist slurs hurled at a FedEx driver led to a fatal punch.)