Seattle Seahawks Apologize for Ridiculous Martin Luther King Jr. Tweet

The Seattle Seahawks must have been feeling themselves after coming off their big win Sunday night—so much so that they thought they’d celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with a memorable tweet.

The football team chose to show MLK some love by tweeting a photo of Russell Wilson crying, and attaching an MLK quote to it. The team compared its win to the hardships King suffered while fighting for equality.

https://twitter.com/YeshaCallahan/status/557269426563985408

No and double no.

Here’s the thing. Not everything needs to be attributed or correlated to King’s mission, especially not football. King was not looking to make touchdown passes or whatever else they do in the sport of football. And for kicks (pun intended), the Seahawks ended their tweet with ‘We Shall Overcome.”  

Who was the person who thought this would be a good idea? Did someone seriously sit down in a cubicle and think to him or herself, “Yeah, this is awesome. I’ll definitely get some kudos for coming up with this idea.”

RT @RobbyRav: “The blacks gon’ love THIS” – Seahawks Social Media manager pic.twitter.com/2YghgEcqV8

— Mez (@Mighty1ne) January 19, 2015

Seahawks, please send that person back to Social Media 101.

It was only a matter of minutes before the tweet disappeared, but not before screenshots were captured. Nothing ever disappears from social media.

@FauxJohnMadden And someone on the Seahawks' social media staff just got fired.

— Mark Gorrow (@MARKGOR26) January 19, 2015

So what does any organization do after its tweet faux pas? It sends out an apology, of course:

We apologize for poor judgment shown in a tweet sent earlier. We did not intend to compare football to the civil rights legacy of Dr. King.

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) January 19, 2015

Dear Seahawks:

Please stay away from Black History Month.

Thanks.