This morning we got tragic news out of the sports world as we learned that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins passed away after getting hit by a dump truck on Interstate 595 in Boca Raton, Florida.
The sudden loss has shaken the NFL to its core, as Haskins was only 24 and still had so much life and potential ahead of him.
But one former NFL name had some rather harsh words on the death of Haskins, and is taking some major heat for it.
Gil Brandt, who served as a scout and Vice President of Player Personnel for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1988, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019, spoke about Haskins’ death on SiriusXM’s NFL radio show, and had some pretty insensitive words about the quarterback:
“I hate any time anybody is killed or anybody dies, but he was a guy that was living to be dead, so to speak. They told him ‘Don’t under any circumstances leave school early. You just don’t have the work habits, you don’t have this, you don’t have that.’
What’d he do? He left school early.
I always can remember this. We invited players to the draft, and he was one of the players we invited to the draft. And we were told ‘No, we’re going to have our own party.’ His own party was a party at the bowling alley, charging $50 to get into the bowling alley for his party.
It was always something, you know? It’s one of those things, ‘I’m never offsides but they keep calling me for offsides.’
It’s a tragic thing, any time anybody dies it’s tragic, especially when you’re 24 years old and you got your whole life ahead of you. But maybe if he’d stayed in school a year he wouldn’t do silly things.
I mean when you’re jogging on the highway, on a road like that, that leaves it open because I’ll tell you, a guy has two drinks and he’s just a little bit to the right side of the road and gets hit and killed, it’s easy to happen.”
Unbelievable.
Needless to say, Brandt is receiving a ton of backlash for his comments:
Rest in peace, Dwayne.
UPDATE:
Gil has since tweeted an apology for what he called a careless and insensitive reaction:
“This morning while learning of Dwayne Haskins’ passing, I reacted carelessly and insensitively on a radio interview.
I want to apologize to Mr. Haskins’ family and anyone who heard my poor choice of words. I truly apologize.
My heart goes out to his family at this difficult time.”
