Brian Kelly's sideline incident Saturday against Temple has put Notre Dame's head coach under the microscope.
Marcellus Wiley, the former NFL All-Pro defensive end and ESPN host, believes Kelly's actions were race-based.
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"This is racial. You know I don’t like to play the race card, but I’m going to go here on this one," Wiley said on ESPN's "SportsNation."
"When you see a black coach getting emasculated basically, undermined on the sidelines, when he’s a coach with authority over those players, they’re going to say, 'Huh, there are very few images and likenesses of a black player with the position of authority on the coaching staff.' Very few.
"And when you see one treated like that, your imagination starts to take over and says, 'Brian Kelly, we tried to respect all of you guys on a level playing field, despite the fact that most of us on the field are black, but then most of you on the sidelines are white.' But when you undermine one of the few figures that we can actually see a likeness, now that speaks volumes to those players."
Kelly said Tuesday he regrets shoving strength and conditioning coach David Grimes during the team's victory over the Owls.
The entire video of Wiley's remarks can be seen here.
