Oregon Ducks Coach Responds to Erika Kirk’s Shoutout, Sounds the Tone We All Need Right Now – RedState

I wrote about how sport can be a large unifying – in fact, they helped fill a clumsy ditch between me and my own father back when. He can bring communities – even societies – so maybe little can.

When the hometown team is in the running for a championship in a way, people of all races, religions and horizons often meet in a way that we do not always see otherwise.

Although we were talking about a bouncing ball around a field, or a washer that screams through the ice, and it may seem silly and unimportant, sports are often a unifying force.

This is why, even in front of a deep tragedy, Erika Kirk, widow of the conservative icon killed Charlie, spoke of the Oregon Ducks in her incredible speech on Friday evening.

And my God did [Charlie] I love Oregon ducks. He would like me to say: “Go Ducks”, and I have to do it because they play on Saturday. So “Come on Ducks”.

She said that even if she wiped the tears of her eyes in the awareness that Charlie will never see another Ducks game again, thanks to a disturbed left assassin who has torn the country.

Sometimes we consider coaches as Rah-Rah cheerlers, urging their teams to go to the next level, but as a father of a high-level athlete (and being a former low-level athlete), I know that they can be much more than that. They can be mentors, father figures for those whose parents have neglected their functions, models that can shape lives for the best.

Oregon Ducks football coach Dan Lanning has heard of what Erika said, and I thought her answer was significant:

“You enter this locker room, you have guys from different breeds, guys from different backgrounds, different religions, and you have a team that loves. Tons of differences. Hence they come from, what they treat, and finally you have a team that love each other, and I think we are missing in our country,” said Lanning.

“I recently discovered that Charlie Kirk was a fan of Oregon, right? I didn’t know that. I was hurting myself for his wife, Erika, and their children. This kind of harm should never exist in our country, and that’s what it is – evil. I remember having to explain this to my family, right?

Watch:

Oregon @Coachdanlanning spoke of Charlie Kirk, violence, and the way everyone is entitled to his opinion in America. Damn, that’s good. Look and share: pic.twitter.com/ztq1f2ztjd

– Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 13, 2025

Find out more: “ We will never abandon ourselves ”: Erika Kirk delivers powerful words to America after the murder of her husband

They want us to live in fear

Life counts, he said, and despite our differences, sport is one of the arenas where we have to put all our differences aside. This should be a lesson for the greatest world as a whole:

“But it is just as sad – every day, it seems that we manage a kind of violence that happens in our country, whether it is Colorado schoolchildren or minnesota children in churches. I mean, life counts, and I think we have lost sight of it. But I want the world to learn a little of our locker room, because we have had a group of people.

Sometimes a coach can be a source of great wisdom, and in my opinion, Dan Lanning sounded the tone we all need at the moment.