USC senior running back Anthony Brown quit the program this week and went out with a blaze of glory.
Well, not exactly.
Brown called new Trojans head coach Steve Sarkisian a racist on Instagram Thursday morning and quit the football team.
Here’s the Instagram post and caption, which has since been deleted:
According to TMZ, Brown’s racist accusations stem from a meeting with Sark in the coach’s office Tuesday. Brown wanted to meet with the coach to find out where he stood with the team since he has been injured.
“When I walked in the room [Sarkisian] said, ‘You have the f**king guts to walk in here — coward.’
“The way he was talking to me … it was like a slave master talking to his slave.”
According to TMZ, Brown says Sark never used any racist words, but he felt the coach had a “racist” tone.
“I called a meeting up with this disrespectful guy!!! He called me a coward, all types of f**k words.”
“He stereotype my mom and dad. like he belittle me to another level.”
“I just responded Yes Sir and No Sir!”
“Never been treated like that before!! Don’t Wish it upon anyone! That’s who he is!”
Sarkisian responded to Brown’s accusations Thursday and disagreed.
“Quite honestly I’m shocked,” Sarkisian said to the media in response.
“It’s ridiculous. Any of you guys that know me, ask any of our players. That’s the furthest thing from the truth,” said Sark via ESPN reporter Arash Markazi. “I had encouraged him to play. I thought he could play. I didn’t want him to quit.”
According to the LA Daily News’ Scott Wolf, Sarkisian met with Brown Thursday to go over the running back missing rehab sessions.
Brown played both ways as a high school senior at Kaiser High in Fontana, Calif., and arrived on campus aiming to play running back for Lane Kiffin. He made the switch to cornerback and was a starter the past two seasons, but he was limited by injuries. He decided to switch back to running back for his senior season, but that did not go well — he was buried on the depth chart.
Lest you think this is a common sentiment among Trojans players, here’s defensive tackle Antwaun Woods defending Sark:
Coach Sark is a great person/Coach! Please disregard comments that have been made by someone.
— Antwaun Woods (@USCTwocka99) August 28, 2014
Overall it’s been a terrible week for USC in terms of media attention. First they had to deal with Josh Shaw fabricating a story about rescuing a drowning nephew, and now this. Oh, and they’re also getting picked on by the national media, too.
