New Brunswick, N.J. - The Rutgers women's basketball team accepted radio host Don Imus' apology Friday for insulting them on the air, saying that he deserves a chance to move on but that they hope the furor his words caused will be a catalyst for change.
"We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept - accept - Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving," coach C. Vivian Stringer read from a team statement a day after the women met personally with Imus and his wife.
"We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget," the statement read
The team had just played in the NCAA national championship game and lost when Imus, on his radio show, called the team members "nappy-headed hos." The statement outraged listeners and set off a national debate about taste and tolerance and led his firing by CBS on Thursday.
"These comments are indicative of greater ills in our culture," the team's statement said Friday. "It is not just Mr. Imus, and we hope that this will be and serve as a catalyst for change. Let us continue to work hard together to make this world a better place."
Imus was in the middle of a two-day radio fundraiser for children's charities when he was dropped by CBS. On Friday, his wife took over and also talked about the meeting with the players.
"They gave us the opportunity to listen to what they had to say and why they're hurting and how awful this is," author Deirdre Imus said.
"He feels awful," she said of her husband. "He asked them, 'I want to know the pain I caused, and I want to know how to fix this and change this.'"
Deirdre Imus also said that the Rutgers players have been receiving hate e-mail, and she demanded that it stop. She told listeners "if you must send e-mail, send it to my husband," not the team.
"I have to say that these women are unbelievably courageous and beautiful women," she said.
Asked Friday morning about the hate mail, Rutgers team spokeswoman Stacey Brann said the team had received "two or three e-mails" but had also received "over 600 wonderful e-mails." Stringer declined to discuss it in the news conference later Friday.
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