The International Olympic Committee decided to drop wrestling from the group of 25 “core sports” for the 2020 Summer Olympics on Tuesday, a decision that was not met with great appreciation by Falcons wide receiver Roddy White.
Like many other football players, White wrestled in high school and Pat Yaskinskas of ESPN.com reports that he’s spent time at the U.S. Olympic wrestling team’s workouts in the past. White took to Twitter to voice his displeasure, which included the same unfortunate word choice that led to Ravens Joe Flacco issuing an apology during the week before the Super Bowl.
“Out of all the sports the Olympics could’ve dropped they dropped wrestling they are retards,” White wrote. “IOC come on seriously wrestling is a sport that almost every country does and you drop it I’m pissed #saveolympicwrestling”
White apologized for using “retards” in a reply to someone who took offense to the word, but not the sentiment behind his overall thoughts on the subject. While this isn’t Amateur Wrestling Talk, we’ll take a moment to agree with White and anyone else who thinks the IOC made a bizarre decision.
Wrestling may not be the most popular sport in the world, but it is one of the few events with a direct line back to the games in Greece that inspired the modern Olympic tradition. Beyond that, the matchup of two men against one another with no tools available to them other than their own speed, strength and brains is about as pure an athletic event as there is in the world. The Olympics are supposed to celebrate such things, not shove them in a closet.