FOR THE KIDS

Jeremy Pruitt Cited George Floyd in Tennessee Recruiting Scandal

The former University of Tennessee coach said racial justice was on his mind when he gave a player’s mom $300 in a Chick-fil-A bag.

Former University of Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt said racial inequality and the murder of George Floyd was on his mind when he gave a player’s mom $300 in a Chick-fil-A bag. Knox News revealed Monday exactly what Pruitt told investigators during the early days of his NCAA recruitment probe. Pruitt said he gave the mother the money in 2020 because he felt bad about the financial strain of the pandemic and the social unrest caused by high-profile killings of Black people. “Then you throw in George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, okay, so you sit there as a white man and you see all of this going on and you can see these kids suffering,” Pruitt said in an effort to justify paying the mother, adding that he “would do it again.”