Old posts by Crushers Club founder Sally Hazelgrove began circulating on social media. In one, Hazelgrove, who is white, is shown with scissors in her hands as she announces she’s going to cut the dreadlocks of a black teenager.

Jay-Z and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pose for a photo during the announcement of a partnership between the league and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

The head of a charity at the center of a new controversy surrounding the collaboration between Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and the NFL told USA TODAY Sports the images of her cutting the dreadlocks of two black teenagers were posted “without much thought” and that she apologizes for “being insensitive.”

The two tweets from the Chicago-based Crushers Club were posted in October 2016. They resurfaced this week when some expressed concerns that the message was racist. The tweets were deleted Friday.

The Crushers Club received $200,000 from Meek Mill and Rapsody on behalf of the Inspire Change Initiative. Inspire Change is a platform that includes the Player Coalition — run by NFL players that seeks social justice reform and support educational opportunities in low-income areas — along with the NFL and Roc Nation.

”Out of 500 youth going through our doors I cut two young men’s hair because they asked me to and we are a family structure and so I did it and didn’t really think about it after that,” Crushers Club founder Sally Hazelgrove said in an email. “I tweeted about it without much thought. It’s hair. but I regret it now and I promise you I will not be doing that again if asked.

“The hatred and accusations from this took me by surprise. ... The backlash has been hard to be honest.”

The images of Hazelgrove, who is white, with scissors in her hands as she announces she’s going to cut the dreadlocks of a black teenager began to circulate hours before a Grant Park concert by Meek Mill and Rapsody. The free concert before Thursday’s Bears-Packers game at Soldier Field was the public kickoff of the Roc Nation-NFL partnership announced last month.

Crushers Club’s Twitter account also used the phrase “All Lives Matter,” a term seen as a critique of the Black Lives Matter campaign against police violence. That tweet, along with, one that asked for President Donald Trump’s help with gang violence in Chicago were also deleted.

”I said that not to take away from black lives matter, but to be inclusive of everyone,” Hazelgrove said. ”I never meant to belittle or disrespect anyone. I will be more sensitive of what I say moving forward. I truly have love for everyone of all races, religions and preferences, and hate does not live in me. I am so sorry for being insensitive.”

Crushers Club is based in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. It uses boxing to help keep kids off the streets and out of gangs.

“Today, the NFL’s #InspireChange ‘social justice’ group is funding & visiting a non-profit that wants to cut off the locks of Chicago Black youth for ‘a better life,’ one Twitter user, @RzstProgramming, wrote.

A few hours later, Crusher Club posted a video of a man identified as Kobe, who said he was the teen pictured getting his dreadlocks cut by Hazelgrove. The photo was posted in 2016.

”They cut my hair like three years ago,” Kobe said in the since-deleted post. “That’s something I wanted to do. I was tired of it. Tired of gang banging. Tired of messing up.”

Messages left with the NFL by USA TODAY Sports were not returned.

California passed a law in July aimed to protect citizens from discrimination based on hairstyle.

“I’m not going to say we shouldn’t have a law that allows us to wear our hair the way it naturally is, but it’s also sad that in 2019, we have to have one in the first place,” Tiffany Dena Loftin, youth and college director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People told USA TODAY.

Last December, a New Jersey high school wrestler was forced to cut his dreadlocks or he would have forfeited a match. Buena (N.J.) Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson chose to have his hair cut and went on to win the match.

A member of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith’s basketball team was dismissed last month after head coach Jim Boone criticized his hairstyle.

A complaint filed by Tyler Williams alleges Boone’s action amounts to “racism and bias.” Chancellor Terisa Riley confirmed in an email Tuesday the school is investigating but officials say Boone remains the men’s basketball coach.

Read more at usatoday.com