Ohio State removes highly criticized 'silence' tweet
The Ohio State Football account sent a tweet on Thursday promoting the Week 5 matchup against Penn State featuring the mantra "Silence."
Ohio State finally removes the Silence tweet. pic.twitter.com/dnmzmaecwV
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 27, 2018
The promo was met with widespread backlash as it comes in the wake of head coach Urban Meyer's three-game suspension for his role in covering up claims of domestic violence against former assistant coach Zach Smith.
The university later released a statement saying the message had been taken down as it was "interpreted in ways we absolutely did not intend."
As we have done in the past and in preparation for Saturday’s game, we issued a message to our fans via the football social media outlets. The message has been interpreted in ways we absolutely did not intend, and we have removed it from our channels.
— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) September 27, 2018
An Ohio State spokesman said the message "is the same message we used before the 2016 whiteout game at Penn State. And that message is directed to our team to play really well to silence an incredible whiteout crowd at Penn State," according to ESPN's Dan Murphy.
Meyer returned to his full-time coaching role for last week's 49-6 victory over Tulane.