May 11, 2017
That's one way to get hyped up before game time.
A college lacrosse team in Long Island is gaining attention online for coming out onto the field with audio of a Donald Trump speech playing as their pregame music.
The video of the Adelphi University team coming out to the speech was posted by Barstool Sports and has been viewed nearly 1 million times on Instagram.
The speech, which is mixed with an electronic music track, is a pretty generic selection from the president's rich history of controversial comments. Per Newsday:
“In all of our cities and all of our towns, I make this promise. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.”
At this point the players start running onto the field.
The speech concludes, “God bless you, and good night. I love you.”
The school said since the speech doesn't contain vulgarity or "inappropriate" subject matter, it meets the guidelines for any team's pregame music and was, therefore, approved.
Head coach Gordon Purdie insisted to the New York Daily News that the speech wasn't meant to offend anyone, pre-emptively responding to any controversy:
"The men's lacrosse team has traditionally chosen patriotic music for its pre-game warm-up," head coach Gordon Purdie said in a statement. "It was not intended to provoke or be taken as a political statement. We're sorry if anyone was offended."
An opposing coach told the paper that the team has been coming out to the speech since at least April.