New Mexico State will be without offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyler Wright for Saturday’s college football rivalry game against New Mexico. He is currently suspended while the university investigates a series of insensitive posts on social media.
The language used in his tweets, which date back more than 10 years, is extremely derogatory toward Africans, African-Americans, Hispanics, women and the LGBTQ+ community.
Las Cruces Sun News reporter Nick Coppola was the first to report on Wright’s concerning past. More than 150 posts were flagged as racist, sexist or homophobic.
New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia initially told the Sun News that he was not aware of anything that would warrant action against Wright. However, the 57-year-old quickly changed his tune after getting up to speed on the matter and announced that the offensive coordinator will “not be with the team” during the school’s review.
Wright did not respond to Coppola’s requests for comment. Head football coach Tony Sanchez also declined the opportunity to provide a statement of his own and deferred to the university.
New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tyler Wright made a series of disturbing posts on social media.
The posts (which are detailed in full by the Sun News) range from 2011 to 2014, when Wright was a wide receiver at Tarleton State. They are offensive.
- He posted about ‘Kony’ more than 60 times.
- Wright said that the African warlord “should be a college coach” because he “got thousands of black kids to do what he said” and referred to him as the “most influential person of the last 20 years.”
- Wright also said Kony was “knockin Africans down like bowling pins.”
- He made multiple derogatory posts about Hispanics and Latinos.
- Wright called a group of Mexican people a “Comanche town hall.”
- Wright referred to himself as the “Whitest Mexican” and later wrote that he was “oiled up and dark! lookin like a Mexican”
- He frequently used homophobic slurs.
- Wright used the word “gay” 73 times on social media in three years.
- Wright also commented on the body parts of transgender women.
- He spoke down on women.
- Wright posted that women “who can’t make a sandwich” should get better at sex instead.
- Wright quipped that he would dress up as laundry for Halloween because “women love laundry” and proudly shared a post that described women’s sports as a “joke.”
- He did not shy away from common slurs for African-Americans.
- Wright reposted a post that referred to him as the taboo word and used it in a post of his own to announce a vacation to Jamaica.
- Wright also described a group of high school girls as “ghetto.”
This list does not even begin to scratch the surface. Tyler Wright’s social media was riddled with concerning language. It appears as though he scrubbed a large number of posts in wake of the news.
To be fair to Wright, he made posts in 2020 that showed a different narrative.
Humans are humans regardless of skin color or background and deserve to be treated as such. We must do better, support each other’s goals and love one another.
— Tyler Wright
He also posted a black square on for ‘Blackout Tuesday,’ which was an international protest of racism and police brutality. That was six years after his problematic posts.
New Mexico State will continue its investigation after the weekend. An internal investigation will determine whether Wright will be allowed to remain on the staff.