FROM US WEEKLY: University of Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning gave a passionate call for unity following the death of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk last week.
Lanning, 39, made the comments to reporters on Saturday, September 13, following his team’s 34-14 victory over Northwestern.
Lanning, who was named the Ducks’ head coach in December 2021, said he “recently found out Charlie Kirk was an Oregon fan.”
Lanning said: “The U.S. could learn a lot from our locker room.”
“I think the people in this world could learn a lot from our locker room,” Lanning said. “When you walk in that locker room, you have guys of different races, guys of different backgrounds, different religions. And you’ve got a team that loves each other.”
“I think we’re missing some of that in our country,” he stated.
“I feel for his wife, Erika, and their kids,” he continued. “That sort of evil should never exist in our country. And that’s what it is, it’s evil.”
He said evil needs to be called out, and common sense needs to be part of debates.
“There’s some people that will be disappointed about how much I said about this, and there will be some people that are disappointed that I didn’t say enough,” Lanning acknowledged. “I really don’t care. What I do care about is if you disagree with me, if you hate me, if you don’t like me, just know this, I love you. I absolutely love you. Right? And life matters.”
Lanning called people who sought to “glorify” or “praise” Kirk’s death “sick.”
“People are internet warriors and those are sick people,” he said. “At some point, we need to look at sports. Because what our football team has? It has people on both sides of the fence. And there’s fans that love our team that have a lot of different opinions.”
“The truth is, there’s a lot of things that Charlie said that I did not agree with at all,” he said. “There’s a lot of things he said that I did agree with. But what’s disappointing is that I can respect those differences. And somebody else couldn’t. And they thought they needed to be God in that moment.”
WATCH:
Oregon coach Dan Lanning talked about the killing of Charlie Kirk and how he addressed it with his team.
“Life matters. And I think we’ve lost sight of that.” pic.twitter.com/NhY9iDZX9M
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) September 13, 2025
