October 08, 2020
Kate Frese/PhillyVoice
Nathan Gerry before the Philadelphia Eagles game against the LA Rams at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 20, 2020.
Eagles linebacker Nate Gerry came under fire on Thursday afternoon after old tweets containing racial slurs resurfaced, forcing the Eagles linebacker to apologize for and disown his past behavior.
Gerry, who is white, is shown to have repeatedly used a variation of the n-word (in addition to what appears to be stereotyping) in tweets dated for the years 2011 and 2012 when the linebacker would have been 16 or 17 years old.
A sampling of the tweets in question is included below, with a sensitive language warning:
Hours after the tweets resurfaced due to what appears to be sleuthing from members of the Eagles' fanbase, Gerry took to his Twitter account to offer an apology for his actions:
I have been made aware of some offensive social media posts I sent out many years ao. I am incredibly disappointed in myself and downright sick over these actions because I know that they don't reflect my values as a person, but more importantly because I understand the damage that my words have caused.
That type of language is never acceptable. I am committed to showing through my actions that is not who I am or what I represent. I take full responsibility and apologize to the organization, to my teammates, our fans, our community and everyone who I have offended by these incredible insensitive and harmful posts.
The Eagles provided PhillyVoice with the following comment:
“We were very disappointed to learn of Nate Gerry’s insensitive social media posts. We do not condone or support that type of behavior in any way and we have discussed this matter with Nate privately. He understands that his actions were offensive and harmful and that the language he used is unacceptable.”
Gerry's controversy is the second social-media related issue of the year for an Eagles player, following DeSean Jackson's anti-semitic Instagram posts referencing Hitler over the summer. Jackson would later apologize for the remarks, noting, "We should be together fighting anti-Semitism and racism."
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