After playing 10 hard seasons in the NFL, Fernando Bryant may have suffered his greatest hit yet, losing a coaching job at a private Christian school because of an old social media post depicting him with a closed bottle of alcohol.
Bryant and his wife, Amber, speculated that he was fired from Strong Rock Christian in Locust Grove, Ga., for a Facebook post from three years ago. During an exclusive Wednesday, Feb. 22, interview with WXIA 11 Alive News, the Bryants said they have no idea why the administration would let him go and question his Christian faith because of a post from the past.
“You’re judging me based off of who I was, and who doesn’t have a past?,” Fernando Bryant says. “That’s what’s a little scary to me. It’s like how far, how far do you have to go back to say I’m a Christian now? How far do you have to go back into someone’s past to say it’s OK for you to testify about your Christianity and who you are and be a role model to someone?”
“We’re kind of shot in the foot for a post that has a closed bottle of alcohol that was for promotion,” Amber Bryant tells reporters. “It makes no sense to me.”
He and his wife underwent a thorough interviewing process where they were asked about their faith and other details of their life.
“I didn’t sugarcoat anything,” Bryant says.
Amber said that they also were asked about their social media presence and a Bravo show reality show “Mother Funders.”
“We went into detail about these things because they said we have parents that may ask questions and we want to know how you’d respond,” Amber explains. “We really thought after that interview that I had been a part of, that we had laid everything out on the table. We were very upfront and honest with them.”
Bryant had the job. Three weeks in, he was called into a meeting with school officials and was asked to resign from his new position, but he refused. So, the school let him go.
In a letter from the school, Strong Rock Christian officials fired Bryant after parents allegedly raised concerns about the Bryants’ life on social media.
“Some within our parent community raised concerns regarding your family’s public presence on social media and the Internet and questioned whether the postings and information were consistent with our school’s Christian ethics and character,” the letter stated.
A screenshot of the school’s job application states that prospective employees “will refrain from the use of alcoholic beverages and tobacco in public.”
Bryant was not told what post led to his termination. The school has yet to comment on the firing as of this report.
