The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has fired assistant football coach Chris Malone after he posted a racist tweet directed at Georgia politician and voting rights organizer Stacey Abrams. The tweet was sent on the day Georgia voters elected two Democratic Senators to Congress in a special runoff election.
Most of the attention towards Malone's tweet came through those who screenshotted it, as the former assistant deleted his Twitter account shortly after the post began to gain traction online. In one response to the post, Tremayne Anchrum Sr. -- father of Rams offensive lineman Tremayne Anchrum Jr. -- urged high school players and coaches in the state to not sign for Tennessee-Chattanooga as long as Malone was on staff.
Both the Mocs head coach, Rusty Wright, and Director of Athletics, Mark Wharton, each released statements on the incident, though neither comment mentioned Malone, or the nature of his post, by name.
Prior to his firing Thursday, Malone served as the offensive line coach for Tennessee-Chattanooga for the past two years. Among his previous stops were Old Dominion, James Madison, Massachusetts and Virginia State, which is a historically Black university.
Abrams served as a Georgia state assembly member from 2007 to 2017. She rose to national prominence during her bid for Georgia state governor in 2018, a race she lost which sparked claims of voter suppression. Since then, she was worked to increase voter turnout in the state for the presidential election, as well as Tuesday's runoff races on Tuesday.