Arizona Wildcats kick player off team after video appears to show him using racist term

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports

Arizona dismissed linebacker Santino Marchiol from the program Monday, coach Kevin Sumlin announced, after a video surfaced over the weekend in which he twice referred to a former Texas A&M teammate as a monkey.

The source of the video, which was uploaded just last week, was Marchiol’s Hudl account, a website where film and other analytics are stored. The offensive clip was discovered by Texas A&M fans and then circulated on social media before it was deleted.

Last week, USA TODAY Sports reported that Marchiol had made numerous accusations of misconduct against Texas A&M, his former program, as he attempted to gain immediate eligibility at Arizona through a waiver request.

In the waiver, which was submitted to the NCAA, Marchiol alleged that Texas A&M’s new coaching staff under Jimbo Fisher had illegally mandated practices in the summer and that linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto had given him hundreds of dollars in cash to entertain recruits. The information had drawn the interest of NCAA investigators.

The larger issue for the NCAA, however, was whether Marchiol might begin a trend of athletes using damaging information against their former schools in waiver requests based on a new NCAA policy allowing immediate transfer eligibility if there were “documented mitigating circumstances that are outside student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete.”

MORE: Arizona Wildcats XTRA app: Get latest news, scores

Marchiol, however, will not be that test case now that Arizona has parted ways with him.

The video appears to show Marchiol and a woman watching film of him. On one occasion she asks, “Who’s 26, carrying the ball?” A male voice, seemingly Marchiol, responds, “Yeah one of those monkeys.”

In another clip, the woman asks about a safety and he responds, “Yeah, they call him the monkey safety” followed by laughter.

Attorney Thomas Mars, whom Marchiol hired to deal with his waiver request, did not have an immediate comment.

The Wildcats open their season on Saturday night against BYU.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:45 p.m.

Marchiol, a native of Centennial, Colo., transferred to Arizona over the summer to play for Sumlin, the coach who originally recruited him to play linebacker at Texas A&M.

The Arizona Daily Star contributed to this report.

READ MORE