Entry #3 February 18th, 2016

Nike Ends Endorsement Contract with Manny Pacquiao
ESPN, Darren Rovell

Overview:
   On February 17th, Nike terminated their endorsement contract with professional Filipino boxer, Manny Pacquiao. While appearing in a Filipino television station, Pacquiao stated that people who have same-sex relationships are worse than animals. 
   "Have you seen any animals having male-to-male or female-female relations?" Pacquiao said. "If you have male-to-male or female-to-female relationships, then people are worse than animals."
   Hours later, Pacquiao tweeted out that he was sorry for comparing homosexuals to animals but that he is still against same-sex marriages. In fact, he even said that he was happy that people were shocked by the truth of how he feels about this dispute.
   Nike then dropped him after the comments he made went out to the public. Nike has stated that the comments Manny Pacquiao made were "abhorrent." His endorsement contract was dropped because Nike has history of supporting "rights for the LGBT community."
   In 2012, Pacquiao made other comments about same-sex marriage being wrong because it was "the law of God." Manny Pacquiao is currently the most popular athlete and person from the Philippines. He is the run for a Senate seat which is believed to lead him to Presidency.

Nike cuts ties with Manny Pacquiao after derogatory comments

Opinion:

   I think Manny Pacquiao's comments were discriminating and just unfair towards people who have same-sex relations. Manny Pacquiao is a world-renowned boxer and role-model. Anyone who is a professional athlete and an Ambassador for their country, is highly looked up to. The Philippines do not accept gay and lesbian marriages as easily as North Americans do. For someone that famous, he should know better than do say something discriminatory like that. Even if he doesn't accept gay and lesbians, he can't say something negative towards a certain group of people. The fact that he made the comment that these people are worse than animals is not even the worse part. He said something inappropriate and then apologized right after he said it. It is quite clear that he is not sincerely sorry about what he said. How can some one make a negative comment towards a group of people and then try and make things better by saying something that you they don't actually mean. Manny Pacquiao needs to realize that there are a lot of people out there who look up to him but are having second thoughts because he voiced an opinion on something that did not need to be voiced.