“I’m really lucky…I’m going to walk into my house, I’m gonna go upstairs, and I’m gonna walk into two pink rooms, ok? With a five-year-old and a four-year-old laying in that pink room with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room. And I’m gonna give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I’ve ever given them. And there’s 20 families in Connecticut that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And it’s tragic.”
Kelsey acknowledged that he was going to use that time and podium to press our political leaders “to be an agent of change” following the deaths of 20 children and six adults.
“Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches, everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change. And I know this microphone’s powerful right now, because we’re playing the fourth-best team in the country. I’m not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life.
And I’m going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men that I get to coach every day. And the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully, things start changing because it’s really, really disappointing. I’m proud to grow up American, I’m proud to say I’m part of the greatest country ever. And it’s gotta stay that way. And it’s gonna stay that way if we change–but we gotta change.
A Cincinnati native and Xavier alumnus, Coach Kelsey called on President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner to “step up.” Coach Pat Kelsey will join msnbc’s “The Last Word” Wednesday night at 10pm ET.
Clare Kim