Bob Huggins' use of homophobic slur 'boggles the mind' | College Basketball Enquirer

Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel is joined by Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated to discuss the West Virginia coach's use of an anti-gay slur on a radio interview earlier this week. Hear the full conversation on the "College Football Enquirer" podcast - and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

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[CROWD CHEERING]

DAN WETZEL: West Virginia men's basketball coach Bob Huggins, he apologized on Monday afternoon after he used an anti-gay slur multiple times during appearance on a Cincinnati radio show. He said it's a completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there is simply no excuse for. He said, "as I have shared with my players over my 40 years of coaching, there are consequences for our words and actions. And I will fully accept any coming my way. I am ashamed, embarrassed, and heartbroken for those I have hurt. I must do better, and I will." He previously said, there is simply no excuse for, and I won't try to make one here. It was a good apology. It was a terrible act.

PAT FORDE: I like Bob Huggins. I have enjoyed being around him. he is refreshingly candid. Now, if this is the candid Bob Huggins, I've never met that Bob Huggins, and I don't like this Bob Huggins, if that's the candid him. It's very-- it's disappointing, to your point. The Bob Huggins I have known and covered wasn't necessarily this person, that I knew of. But you don't know these guys that well, we find out sometimes.

What the hell actually happened here just boggles my mind. And I've talked to several other people that have covered Hugs. And I mean, this is-- the interview was Monday at, like, 1:30. My first thought was, did he go to some golf scramble in the morning and throwback bourbon all morning, and was he drunk on the air?

Or did he miss the very obvious cue when Bill Cunningham, who is a longtime, loudmouth, rabble-rouser kind of, you know, "stoked the worst in people" sort of radio host. So the transgender night comment doesn't surprise me there. But did he miss the cuer, Bob, or when Bill Cunningham says, you're on the air live? I don't know. But either way, I was just stunned at this conversation that came about.

ROSS DELLENGER: You know, my thinking, is it really doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter.

PAT FORDE: No. No.

ROSS DELLENGER: And--

PAT FORDE: It was on the air. That's what matters.

ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah, he was on the air. And if he wasn't on the air and he said that in a taped conversation that was supposed to be off the record, guess what? I mean, it matters less, but it still matters. He still said that, and he still thinks that it believes that's OK to say. So that's-- that's an issue.

DAN WETZEL: Yep.

PAT FORDE: If any other significant employee at West Virginia publicly said what Bob Huggins said, I can't imagine we would be 48 hours down the road without them being fired, any of them, including the president [INAUDIBLE]. So this would be qualified as special treatment for Bob Huggins.