One day after their unbelievable, inspiring win over the Green Bay Packers, which sent them to the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks hit rock bottom on Twitter with a tweet that read, "We shall overcome #MLKDay"—using Martin Luther King Jr. to celebrate the team and its football prowess.
The tweet, which appears to have been deleted, also included a photo of quarterback Russell Wilson, with a tear in his eye, captioned with this MLK quote: "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
As you can see below, the response was not kind.
UPDATE: The Seahawks have now apologized for the tweet:
We apologize for poor judgment shown in a tweet sent earlier. We did not intend to compare football to the civil rights legacy of Dr. King.
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) January 19, 2015As we did our MLK tweet roundup earlier today, we had thought brands had learned a thing or two about sensitivity in this regard. Clearly not. The New England Patriots, meanwhile, didn't post any MLK tweets, preferring to keep it simple.
this is disgusting, @seahawks. pic.twitter.com/bC05nb2nDF
— drew olanoff (@drew) January 19, 2015 The photo was one thing, but the fact that the @seahawks actually wrote "We shall overcome" as the caption is mind-boggling. #MLKday#fail
— SportsGrid (@SportsGrid) January 19, 2015 MLK Day should be renamed "Social Media Intern Firing Day." RT @Seahawks We shall overcome. #MLKDaypic.twitter.com/TNR5v9dHr7
— Colin Brooks (@cgb5001) January 19, 2015"@Seahawks: We shall overcome. #MLKDayhttp://t.co/B34tdbXC2M" ummm, where do I even start with how wrong, gross, and obtuse this is?!
— Heather Smolen (@hsmolen) January 19, 2015 Seriously??? Don't make me root for the Pats. RT @Seahawks: We shall overcome. #MLKDayhttp://t.co/XCLoYDh3dZ"
— Shary Tran (@sharytran) January 19, 2015 MLK's "We shall overcome" is about civil rights and achieving equality, it is blasphemous to compare it to a football game. @Seahawks
— Shirley (@SFsportschick) January 19, 2015 Fire everyone who had a hand in this. Immediately RT @Seahawks: We shall overcome. #MLKDaypic.twitter.com/dyJBA37F9E
— DarkSkintDostoyevsky (@daniecal) January 19, 2015