University of Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning gave a passionate call for unity following the death of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk last week.
Lanning, 39, made the comments to reporters on Saturday, September 13, following his team’s 34-14 victory over Northwestern.
“The U.S. could learn a lot from our locker room,” Lanning said. “I think the people in this world could learn a lot from our locker room. When you walk in that locker room, you have guys of different races, guys of different backgrounds, different religions. And you’ve got a team that loves each other.”
Lanning added, “I think we’re missing some of that in our country.”
Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10. He was 31 years old.
Lanning criticized people who he said sought to “glorify” or “praise” Kirk’s death.
“People are internet warriors and those are sick people,” he said. “At some point, we need to look at sports. Because what our football team has? It has people on both sides of the fence. And there’s fans that love our team that have a lot of different opinions.”
He added, “The truth is, there’s a lot of things that Charlie said that I did not agree with at all. There’s a lot of things he said that I did agree with. But what’s disappointing is that I can respect those differences. And somebody else couldn’t.”
Lanning, who was named the Ducks’ head coach in December 2021, said he “recently found out Charlie Kirk was an Oregon fan.”
“I feel for his wife, Erika, and their kids,” he said, “That sort of evil should never exist in our country. And that’s what it is, it’s evil.”
Lanning acknowledged, “There’s some people that will be disappointed about how much I said about this, and there will be some people that are disappointed that I didn’t say enough.”
To those critics, Lanning said, “I really don’t care.”
“What I do care about is if you disagree with me, if you hate me, if you don’t like me, just know this, I love you,” he continued. “I absolutely love you. Life matters.”
Lanning argued, “There’s no way that Charlie should have experienced that, his family should experience that. There’s no way that evil should exist in this world and we have to continue to identify it and point it out.”
The head coach widened the scope of comments, acknowledging the widespread prevalence of gun violence.
“There’s no reason in the world that we should be worried about sending our kids to school,” Lanning said. “It’s our most valuable commodity in the world. They should be protected.”
He added, “The reality is, there’s just not a lot of common sense on both sides.”
