{"id":361713,"date":"2025-09-12T08:55:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/361713\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T08:55:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:55:51","slug":"miller-place-alum-fired-from-nfl-job-over-insensitive-charlie-kirk-post-on-instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/361713\/","title":{"rendered":"Miller Place alum fired from NFL job over &#8216;insensitive&#8217; Charlie Kirk post on Instagram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>          <a href=\"https:\/\/greaterlongisland.com\/miller-place-charlie-rock-fired-panthers-charlie-kirk-post\/\" alt=\"Miller Place alum fired from NFL job over \u2018insensitive\u2019 Charlie Kirk post on Instagram\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n        <img width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/charlie-rock.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-4 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>      <\/a><\/p>\n<p>A Long Island native has been fired from the Carolina Panthers\u2019 communications department following an \u201cinsensitive social media post\u201d in the wake of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah, according to media reports.<\/p>\n<p>Miller Place High School graduate Charlie Rock was reportedly dismissed Thursday from his communications coordinator role after purportedly posting on Instagram a message that read: \u201cWhy are y\u2019all sad? Your man said it was worth it\u2026\u201d alongside an image of Kirk. Another post referenced the Wu-Tang Clan song \u201cProtect Ya Neck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rock\u2019s post appeared to reference Kirk\u2019s past remarks suggesting that some gun-related casualties were, in his view, a price worth paying to preserve Second Amendment gun ownership rights.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous X users tagged the Panthers on the social media platform with alleged screenshots of the post. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/sports\/nfl\/carolina-panthers\/article312064968.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlotte Observer<\/a> confirmed the firing, citing a source familiar with the team\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers said in a statement that the organization has \u201caccordingly addressed it with the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement, posted at 10:01 a.m. Thursday on X,  reads: \u201cThe views expressed by our employees are their own and do not represent those of the Carolina Panthers. We do not condone violence of any kind. We are taking this matter very seriously and have accordingly addressed it with the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The views expressed by our employees are their own and do not represent those of the Carolina Panthers. We do not condone violence of any kind. We are taking this matter very seriously and have accordingly addressed it with the individual.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Panthers\/status\/1966139925130351065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-27b969d737959ff4bbecb0af7f034029\">Rock of Sound Beach is the son of Tom Rock, a longtime reporter and columnist with Newsday who has covered the NFL for nearly 20 years. It\u2019s unclear how long Charlie Rock, a 2018 graduate of Miller Place High School, has worked with the Panthers; his LinkedIn was seemingly taken down at some point on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e46ca75c082082134ba7f7c74d7c3754\">The Charlotte Observer reported that he served as an intern for the organization before recently being promoted to a staff position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ebb8e062012b3b20ff0c3407ddd1350f\">Charlie Rock could not be reached for comment. Greater Long Island reached out to Tom Rock via email but has not yet heard back from him.<\/p>\n<p>Online reaction was swift<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP25254716252409.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91946\"\/>A makeshift memorial is set up at Turning Point USA headquarters after the shooting death at a Utah college on Wednesday, of Charlie Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the organization, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4419365d30132cfb1132578d939fbe53\">Reaction to Charlie Rock\u2019s post was swift, with critics online calling it offensive and inappropriate in light of Kirk\u2019s assassination Wednesday during a speaking event outside at Utah Valley University. Kirk, 31, was a key political ally of President Donald Trump, the founder of Turning Point USA, and a highly influential presence in conservative political circles.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are asking for the public&#8217;s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. <br \/>1-800-CALL-FBI<br \/>Digital media tips: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/K7maX81TjJ\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/K7maX81TjJ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ALuVkTXuDc\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ALuVkTXuDc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FBISaltLakeCity\/status\/1966169520403525760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 11, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8491b38b621cfbca6cfc7fac5f1ff858\">Top photos: Charlie Rock (LinkedIn) and Charlie Kirk (AP Photo\/Jeffrey Phelps, File). Center: A makeshift memorial is set up at Turning Point USA headquarters after the shooting death at a Utah college on Wednesday, of Charlie Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the organization, Thursday, Sept. 11, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin).<\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Long Island native has been fired from the Carolina Panthers\u2019 communications department following an \u201cinsensitive social media&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,58365,64132,7,64273,64274,64275,6,236,2877,64276],"class_list":{"0":"post-361713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-charlie-rock","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-long-island-news","15":"tag-miller-place","16":"tag-newsday","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-panthers","19":"tag-social-media","20":"tag-tom-rock"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115190496213680350","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}