Hundreds of sports reporters took to social media on Friday and paid tribute to Hank Aaron after hearing the news of his sudden passing at the age of 86.
Jeff Passan was among them who attempted to write some kind words about the legend, but he would soon fully regret it.
Passan sent a tweet about Aaron that called the one-time home run king a “true American hero” that “ignored hate as he conquered baseball.”
The backlash led to Passan deleting the poorly worded tweet in which he tried to explain why he used the word “ignored.”
“The use of ignored here was meant to convey Henry’s ability not (to) allow the awful things people said and did to shake him publicly,” Passan wrote. “That was a sliver of his reality and one I could’ve worded better. He endured hated, he fought hatred, he braved hatred. And he deserved none of it.” He ended up deleting that tweet as well.
Bleacher Report’s Master Tesfatsion called the tweets an example of “white people trying to wax poetically about racism.”
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Passan would soon issue an apology:
Social media still did not care:
