Chris Malone, a former assistant football coach at Old Dominion, was fired Thursday by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after attacking voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams on social media, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Malone was ODU’s offensive line coach from 2016-18 before being fired by coach Bobby Wilder. Malone previously coached at VMI, James Madison and Virginia State and has been Chattanooga’s offensive line coach for the past two seasons.
Malone’s Twitter post came after Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won runoff elections in Georgia – where Abrams served in the House of Representatives from 2007-17.
Malone has since deleted his Twitter account, but images of the post show he mocked Abram’s weight, calling her “Fat Albert,” and added an accusation of election fraud that has been proven false – “you have truly shown America the true works of cheating in an election.”
Malone posted the tweet Tuesday night, and it gained national attention Wednesday. He was fired Thursday morning.
“Last night, a totally inappropriate social media post by a member of our football staff was brought to my attention,” Chattanooga athletic director Mark Wharton said in a statement Thursday morning on Twitter. “The entire post was appalling. The sentiments in that post do not represent the values of our football program, our athletics department or our university. With that said, effectively immediately, that individual is no longer a part of the program.”
A native of Emporia, Malone was a standout offensive lineman at Virginia Tech and in his senior year helped the Hokies win their first Big East title, beat Miami for the first time and upset ninth-ranked Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl. He was All-Big East as a senior and started 47 consecutive games. – VA Pilot
