A Volleyball Commentator Said A Gay Player Deserved To Be “Popped” And The Apology Makes It Worse
A college volleyball commentator suggested on a live ESPN+ broadcast that a gay player should be punched for celebrating too expressively. In a sporting world where LGBTQIA+ athletes already face threats, harassment, and actual violence for simply being visible, the remark landed like a gut punch of its own.
What happened on air
During a Big West Conference match between Cal State Northridge (CSUN) and UC Irvine on 11 April 2026, commentator Charlie Brande aimed at CSUN redshirt junior Jordan Lucas. Lucas, who is openly gay, had recorded eight kills and seven digs in the match. His crime? Celebrating with flair.
“I’m amazed Jordan Lucas hasn’t been popped by somebody,” Brande said during the broadcast. “The antics he’s making under the net, it’s very distasteful.”
Brande is a former player and UC Irvine Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. He wasn’t some random caller. He was the official voice of the broadcast, and he used that platform to suggest a gay athlete’s self-expression warranted physical violence.
The apology that missed the point
Brande posted a public apology on UC Irvine Men’s Volleyball’s Instagram page on 13 April. “I take full accountability for my comment and the damage it may have caused,” he wrote. “Violence should never be acceptable or tolerated.”
The problem? The apology addressed the violent part but dodged the homophobia entirely. Volleyball commentator Canaan pointed out that similar celebrations by straight players would be read as competitive fire rather than provocation. Coach Arielle Houlihan was blunter, calling the remarks “an absolute abomination” and asking whether Brande was “insinuating” a hate crime.
Lucas declined to comment directly but posted on Instagram: “Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and love I’ve received over the past couple of days.”
From words to fists
If the suggestion that a queer athlete should be “popped” sounds abstract, consider what happened to Pascal Kaiser. The 29-year-old German football referee, who came out as bisexual in 2021, proposed to his boyfriend Moritz on the pitch at Cologne’s RheinEnergieStadion on 30 January 2026 in front of nearly 50,000 fans. The moment went viral for all the right reasons.
One week later, it turned violent. On 7 February, three men ambushed Kaiser in his garden, punching him and injuring his right eye. He had reported threatening messages to police just 20 minutes earlier, including messages that contained his home address. Police told him there was no immediate threat. Then he was attacked.
Two days later, on 9 February, Kaiser was beaten again outside his home by two more attackers, suffering blows to the face and torso. Police arrived 30 minutes after being called. He was hospitalised and later moved to a safe location under police protection.
FC Köln issued a statement saying they “stand by our conviction for acceptance, diversity, and equality, in sport and in society, on the pitch and in everyday life.” It’s a nice sentence. It didn’t stop a man from being beaten twice in three days.
The numbers tell the story
According to the Out on the Fields study, the largest international survey on homophobia in sport, 80% of respondents had witnessed or experienced homophobia in a sporting environment. Just 1% believed LGBTQIA+ athletes were “completely accepted” in sports culture. Among gay and bisexual males aged 15 to 21, more than half reported being targeted by homophobic behaviour in sport. LGBTQIA+ athletes drop out of sport at twice the rate of their straight peers.
When a commentator on a live broadcast casually suggests a gay player deserves to get hit, and when a referee gets beaten at his own front door for proposing to the man he loves, is anyone really surprised that athletes stay in the closet? The language and the violence aren’t separate problems. One feeds the other. “Popped” is a small word. For queer athletes listening, it carries a very specific weight.
