MLB players and professional athletes everywhere should have learned a valuable lesson from what happened to Josh Hader during the MLB All-Star Game, but Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Sean Newcomb was apparently not paying close enough attention.
On Sunday, Newcomb became a household name when he came just one strike away from throwing a no-hitter. While that was going on, the Twitter police was hard at work looking up some of the left-hander’s old tweets. And they weren’t pretty.
Newcomb, who is 25, sent a number of tweets when he was a teenager that contained homophobic slurs and other offensive language. Screenshots of the tweets were taken before they were deleted, and many of them included racist and homophobic terms. Newcomb was quickly made aware of what was happening, and he chose to address it with the media.
Sean Newcomb said he saw the tweets resurfaced when he was on his phone after today’s game and he wanted to get ahead of it and apologize, so he asked the #Braves if he could meet with media now to issue statement.
— Kelsey Wingert (@KelsWingert) July 29, 2018
“This is something that obviously can’t be happening. I feel bad about it. I don’t mean to offend anybody. I definitely regret it.” – Sean Newcomb
— Kelsey Wingert (@KelsWingert) July 29, 2018
“I felt that it would be good to address it right away and just let people know that I meant nothing by it. I didn’t mean to offend anybody and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’ll be smarter.” – #Braves Sean Newcomb @FOXSportsBraves
— Kelsey Wingert (@KelsWingert) July 29, 2018
When asked if he was worried about how stuff like this would play in the clubhouse, “I think that people who know me know that’s not the kind of person I am.” – #Braves Sean Newcomb @FOXSportsBraves
— Kelsey Wingert (@KelsWingert) July 29, 2018
The incredible thing is we just saw the exact same type of situation play out with Hader. The Milwaukee Brewers pitcher also apologized, though fans on the road have gone out of their way to let Hader know how they feel about him.
Some of the tweets Newcomb sent were inexcusable, but it’s still amazing that every athlete isn’t cleaning out their Twitter account or having someone do it for them.
