A student-athlete who was going to start playing college football at Cornell University has lost his spot on the team due to uttering a racial slur on a video, the student newspaper reported.
Nate Panza, who rushed for more than 1,100 yards and scored 19 touchdowns at Morristown-Beard in New Jersey, said the N-word in a Snapchat video recorded around 1 a.m. Sunday.
In the video — filmed by Panza’s high school classmate and incoming University of Richmond student Adam Giaquinto — a third person smokes a cigarette, while Panza is heard off-screen using the racial slur.
The camera then pans to Panza, who says, “Oh wait, you can’t put that one up. You can’t post that. Adam, you can’t post that.”
“Please save it, though,” Panza continues, about the documentation of his friend’s first cigarette.
The video began to spread via social media and transcripts and the video itself was shared by various accounts.
Panza has been kicked off the football team. His admission to the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management remained as of Monday evening. Cornell had yet to issue a statement.
Panza sent a statement to the student paper:
“A video was taken of me using a word that is offensive and hurtful,” Panza wrote in a statement to The Sun on Monday night. “The word has a long history of cruelty for the black community and is simply wrong. I am heartbroken I have hurt people; those I know and those I do not. I take full responsibility for my actions.”
“I do not believe that my language that night aligns with who I have tried to be as a person, the values I live by or the manner in which I have conducted myself as an athlete. My immediate reaction to the video was to reach out to my entire high school community to offer my sincerest apologies.”
Panza can be seen playing the video below, wearing No. 4. He was a running back and linebacker in high school.