The game was a disaster for the Michigan State Spartans. The football program, rattled by scandal, suffered a 49-0 blowout against their rival on Saturday. Being investigated for sign stealing, Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines cruised to victory, but the final score wasn’t the only ugly part of the game. Adolf Hitler made an unexpected and inappropriate appearance.
No, I’m not kidding. He was a trivia question during this massacre of a game. As many noted, the question comes off as egregiously tone-dead, given the events in Israel and the recent murder of a synagogue president in Detroit (via Detroit Free Press):
Michigan State has apologized after an image of Adolf Hitler was shown on the Spartan Stadium scoreboard before the Spartans' 49-0 loss to in-state rival Michigan on Saturday.
"We are deeply sorry for the content that was displayed, as this is not representative of our institutional values," MSU said in part of its statement. "MSU will not be using the third-party source going forward and will implement stronger screening and approval procedures for all videoboard content in the future.”
The image quickly went viral after appearing about 80 minutes prior to kickoff during a pregame trivia question about the German dictator's birthplace. It seemed to be an identical match to an image published in an Oct. 13 episode on "The Quiz Channel," a YouTube channel that posts quizzes in a number of different categories.
[…]
The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny on the rise of antisemitism amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and happened the same day Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll was found fatally stabbed outside her home.
Who could possibly think “where was Hitler born” would be an appropriate quiz question on the Jumbotron during a football game?
— Ryan Shead (@RyanShead) October 22, 2023
Very disappointed to see this from Michigan State. https://t.co/NZ7kjTk5Jw
Michigan State has issued a response to the Adolf Hitler trivia question on the scoreboard during pregame warm ups:
— Jeanna Trotman (@JeannaTrotmanTV) October 22, 2023
“We are deeply sorry for the content that was displayed, as this is not representative of our institutional values." pic.twitter.com/NfAdQwtQTC
Michigan State says its "deeply sorry" after a pregame scoreboard question asked what country Hitler was born in. This is insane.pic.twitter.com/PEajH75VkR
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 22, 2023
Michigan State feels like a Mad Libs of horrible headlines. https://t.co/cXd5PATc8D
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) October 22, 2023
For some reason, Michigan State is quizzing its football fans about Hitler’s biography pic.twitter.com/QiRHdiR2cr
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) October 22, 2023
Michigan State football posted a truly tone deaf trivia quetion during the game todayhttps://t.co/6XaPchLcuc
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 22, 2023
I agree this was a very dumb idea especially in light of todays political climate. However keep in mind we are talking about Michigan State here. Nobody ever said Little Brother was the sharpest tool in the shed. Sometimes stupid is stupid does. https://t.co/jVCg0dTEP6
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) October 22, 2023
At the start of the season, Michigan State fired its football coach, Mel Tucker, over a sexual misconduct complaint. It’s been a rough season, and Hitler being sprinkled into the mix is just something you cannot make up. Back-to-back public relations disasters, while not a death knell for the school, will bring embarrassment with the fallout.
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