A White assistant high school football coach resigned after a video on Instagram showed him using the N-word.

John Hoskins, who was the assistant coach at Knightdale High School, was celebrating the team’s win against Corinth Holders High when he yelled, “White power, Knightdale. I still love you, n*****,” ABC11 reports. 

Now, he tells ABC11 he gained “15 seconds of fame in the wrong way. I’ve ruined the last 12 years of my career.” 

The 32-year-old Wake County, North Carolina, coach insisted he meant nothing by his words. In fact, he said his Black friends and Black players on the team have said it’s OK for him to use the N-word. 

“Just to set the record, I’m not racist. I don’t mean it in a negative way,” Hoskins told ABC11.

“I guess I’ve been around them for so long. We’re friends. I mean nothing from it,” he continued. “The word can be used in multiple ways. They treat me as any of their own friends.” 

Hoskins detailed how the high school team’s Black players have told him to say the N-word, which he said “slips” sometimes, making them “smile and laugh.” 

“They joke around. We joke around. They walk up to me and say it. ‘Hey coach, just say it. You’re a good coach. Just say it.’ Once in a while, it slips,” he said. “Once a year, it slips. To have them smile and laugh. Besides that, I mean nothing from it.” 

Hoskins deleted the Instagram post, but it was too late, someone had already reported it, ABC11 reports. 

The following day, he resigned and apologized in a one-sentence resignation letter to the school’s principal and the head football coach, ABC11 reports.

“I John Phillip Hoskins resign,” he wrote in the letter on Nov. 3. “I’m Sorry, Love you guys!”

Hoskins said he resigned out of fear of being a distraction to the team, ABC11 reports.

“The language, the context is not OK. And unfortunately, social media will show you a piece of something but not all of something,” School District Superintendent Cathy Moore said Tuesday (Nov. 5), ABC11 reports. 

Wake County Schools said Hoskins’ remarks violated the district’s code of conduct policy and that they will continue their work for equality and inclusion with the help of teachers, parents, students and staff, ABC11 reports. 

“This man is an adult,” Moore told ABC11. “He should know better.”