Two hours after sending a tweet that compared African-Americans' decades-long struggle for civil rights to a football team's quest for the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks apologized Monday afternoon.
"We apologize for poor judgment shown in a tweet sent earlier," the account tweeted at 4:28 p.m. EST, adding "We did not intend to compare football to the civil rights legacy of Dr. King."
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, 2015
Hours earlier the account sent a tweet that said, "We shall overcome," with the hashtag #MLKDay, and an Associated Press photo of a weeping Russell Wilson -- whose great-great-grandfather was a slave to a colonel in the Confederate army, only to be freed after the Civil War -- under a quote attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The quote read: "Faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Seahawks-Tweet.jpg" caption="A since-deleted tweet by the Seattle Seahawks said, "We shall overcome," comparing the organization's quest for the Super Bowl to the civil rights movement." credit="" alt="Seahawks Tweet"]
The organization deleted the tweet after it was met with widespread criticism, as Twitters users called it "tasteless," "disgusting" and "the most offensive Tweet in sports history."
Others called for the social media staffer behind the tweet, or the entirety of the organization's PR department, to resign for the tweet that came not long after AdWeek declared the holiday free of any brand fumbles.