Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh denies he used the word “faggot” while yelling at officials during Saturday’s Notre Dame-Stanford game. Harbaugh told Ted Rybka of GLAAD:
It did not come out of my mouth. It would not come out of my mouth. It’s not in my heart to ever say that.
The controversy was started when Chris Finley e-mailed a YouTube link alleging that Harbaugh yelled “f*cking asshole faggot” at an official following a holding call. The problem though is that the audio is muted and Finley laid over text of what he guesses Harbaugh is saying.
Harbaugh told GLAAD that he did curse but denies using an anti-gay slur. He issued the following statement on Friday:
“I would like to state unequivocally the alleged anti-gay remark that some have attributed to me did not come from my mouth and any such assertion is hurtful to me, members of my family and the gay community. Those who know me know I never use slurs under any circumstances; the bias reflected by spiteful slurs is simply not in my heart.”
I am giving Harbaugh the benefit of the doubt. Without audio, it is impossible to know what he said. To accuse someone of using a slur, you need some sort of proof (audio, an eyewitness account) and not trying to read lips off a TV monitor.
on Dec 3rd, 2009 at 7:55 PM
I believe Harbaugh 100%. I have the good fortune of having personal contact with his brother and have met Jim. That family of people is very, very special. I just don’t believe it’s in his makeup to spew hatred.
on Dec 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 PM
I don’t have an opinion right now. I really want to track down a lip reader who can tell me what he said. Or I’d like to hear from Harbaugh what he said. I do understand what he’s saying: If faggot just isn’t in his vocabulary, if it’s just not a word he says, then it makes it tough to believe he suddenly said it. Still, I’d love to find someone who can tell me definitely what he said.
on Dec 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 PM
So guilty until proven innocent, ay Cyd? Why wouldn’t we take him at his word when the evidence is so shoddy to begin with?
on Dec 4th, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Without proof, we will never know.
But one thing we do know – Harbaugh’s on notice that using “faggot” is not acceptable. Isn’t that the whole point of the matter?
on Dec 4th, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Heterosexual men have become such a joke these days.
You’re bigger faggots than ANY homosexual could ever be.
Such fragile egos and ridiculous notions of superiority might be the reason so many of your women are lusting after gay dudes.
Ya tools.
on Dec 4th, 2009 at 5:24 PM
clearly he said it. and clearly he’s lying. there’s no way to imagine context for the video in which he’s saying anything else. he’s berating an individual. it’s in a sequence when he calls the single referee an “f***ing a**hole”
nobody can call a ref a “f’ing a’hole f..g/k…t” and have it be anything but. and the lip-readers have weighed in which is why we have the controversy. harbaugh’s now not only a bigot, but a liar too.
on Dec 4th, 2009 at 6:50 PM
DruggyBear, what on earth are you talking about? I haven’t judged him innocent or guilty. People misspeak and lie all the time. I’m inclined to believe him, but I just don’t know. So take your petty bitching elsewhere.
on Dec 4th, 2009 at 9:58 PM
When I watched it I saw him say “F*ckin’ *sshole. F*ck it! or maybe F*cker but definitely NOT f*ggot. The second consonant he is saying is a “k” and not a “g”.
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 6:42 AM
And Outsports continues its party line of providing cover to homophobes wherever possible.
If he had said something other than “Faggot,” he would have explained what it was, wouldn’t he?
Easier to pay attention to idiot partisans like Zeke, who does not understand that “k” and “g” are formed identically and look identical when spoken
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 8:06 AM
Landon,
Get over yourself. As you yourself said, there’s no way to know whether it was a “k” sound or a “g” sound.
So, why are you already ready to prosecute the man and label him a “homophobe?” He told you outright that that word isn’t in his vernacular, but it seems like you’d prefer to have a witch trial based on shoddy evidence than to give the benefit of the doubt.
If you want to find greater tolerance and understanding of one another, I suggest you turn a critical eye to yourself first.
MW
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 1:30 PM
“And Outsports continues its party line of providing cover to homophobes wherever possible.”
Huh?
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 3:34 PM
wow someone doesn’t like being called out on their bullshit! you are “inclined to believe him” Cyd but then you also want to “track down a lip reader” because you’d “love to find someone who can tell me definitely what he said.” well which is it? do you believe him or are you gonna continue this witch hunt?
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 3:43 PM
for the record i thought i heard him say something about a flag, you know, which had just been thrown! “flag” and “fag” are verrrrry similar but hey guys go ahead and jump to conclusions like hysterical queens always out to play the victim card, I take this by all-accounts good man at his word.
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Huh?
Well, DUH, Jim and Cyd, you aren’t out leading the lynch mob with your pitchforks and torches, ready to flay Harbaugh alive based on nothing more than a garbled YouTube vid, a label put there by someone who admits they’re not sure it’s correct and online lip readers like Sirius and that professional outrage-machine $$$Andy Towle$$$ and the brain-dead commenters at his ad-clogged site, ergo, you’re homophobes.
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 6:45 PM
J. Allen it appears Jim & Cyd are split on this issue, Jim says “To accuse someone of using a slur, you need some sort of proof (audio, an eyewitness account) and not trying to read lips off a TV monitor” whereas Cyd wants to “track down a lip reader” to read Harbaugh’s lips off the TV monitor.
on Dec 5th, 2009 at 8:41 PM
“Idiot partisan”? Really Landon. How exactly did you come to such a conclusion about me based on my stated opinion of what I saw? And exactly WHAT do you mean by “partisan”? I’m an Ole Miss alumnus who has no allegiance whatsoever to Harbaugh, Stanford or Cardinal football and I have no idea what political party Harbaugh belongs to. So what is it that I’m partisan to?
I think you have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is in fact YOU who’s the idiot.
on Dec 6th, 2009 at 2:16 AM
Everyone defending Harbaugh– what is he saying in the video in the video if not “Faggot?” If you think his lack of explanation does not prove that’s what he said in itself, don’t you need to come up with a believable alternative before you buy this obvious lie? “Flag” does not work in the context.
Idiots.
on Dec 6th, 2009 at 3:12 AM
Landon, the burden of proof is on the one making the accusation, moron
on Dec 6th, 2009 at 10:35 PM
DruggyBear,
1. What is he saying if not “faggot?”
2. Why would Harbaugh not explain what he was saying?
And when there is clear video proof of something, the burden has been met unless a credible alternative explanation has been offered.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Landon:
I played the video for my roommate with the annotations shut off; I asked her what she felt he was saying. She got “Fucking [something]” the first time around. We played it another time and she got “Fucking asshole [something].” We played it two more times before she finally concluded “Fucking asshole! Fuck it!”
When I told her that people were accusing him of using a gay slur, she was shocked and watched it again, before concluding “No, it’s definitely ‘fuck it’.”
Perhaps the reason why people think it says something else is because we were tainted by the annotations in YouTube. It seems that people who watch the video without annotations get a completely different idea of what he was saying.
MW
P.S. Please refrain from name-calling. Seriously, if you’re looking for understanding and tolerance, the time has come for you to turn a critical eye to yourself.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 1:21 AM
“clear video proof of something”
how in any way is that YouTube clip clear evidence he said “faggot”? there’s no audio! did you find some other version of the tape? the man denied it, has had people vouch for his character on this very blog and seems to be if not a friend of our community at least respectful of us, so why keep up this character attack?
but if none of this has convinced you, i doubt anything will.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 3:44 AM
“why doesn’t he explain what he said”
That is a ridiculous comment. He is supposed to curse in his interview with GLAAD. “What I said was fucking asshole”. don’t be ridiculous
He wanted to address the issue because of the respect he has for Stanford University. He is not going to make the situation worse by cursing in an interview.
This is the man who called out schools like USC and Michigan (his alma mater) for making too many compromises academically for athletes. He’s demonstrated himself to be a man of character.
on Nov 7th, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Personally, with the sound off, played time and time again it looks to me like “fuck” and its variations were used. To others, I suppose, it could conceivably be the worse “f” word. The good-hearted folks on all sides of these possibilities can easily address their concerns to Stanford, or to Coach Harbaugh himself. For my part, it seems completely out of character for him from what I know of his professional life, detailed in the news over the years. Then again, I’ve been fooled by supposed friends of mine about this kind of casually mean-hearted verbal abuse before. Nonetheless, I urge all of you who are understandably upset (given your personal conviction that a homophobic slur was used) to act further on your beliefs.
I’ve got to admit, though, that I’m really exhausted about this CNN commentator’s homophobic phrases about a 5-year-old dressing up for Halloween as a cartoon character, pathologizing a family whose Mom strikes me as super evolved in her humanity, humor and love of her child. I commented on Towleroad.com and then spoke with the attorney/agent of “America’s Psychologist” (as he labels himself.) Shortly thereafter I received an apology by email, about which I was momentarily duped into thinking was sincerely unique. Upon discovering that he had sent the identical (except for the recipients’ names being changed) email to many other folks, I researched the guy’s history and found out that he seemed more concerned about his future income than acknowledging the hurtful to deadly consequences of his words.
Still, I just don’t think that the film shows Harbaugh saying “that” slur used way too casually by a whole lot of athletes, witless about the dangerous and life-threatening consequences of demeaning an innate (and usually fabulous) trait shared by millions of humans over thousands of years of known history.