Football (illustration)
Football (illustration)Thinkstock

The wife of NFL player Brent Grimes has come under fire after she used an anti-Semitic slur in ridiculing the Miami Dolphins’ Jewish owner for hiring another Jew to be his team’s executive vice president, JTA reported Monday.

Miko Grimes said in a tweet Sunday that Stephen Ross "was keeping his jew buddies employed" with his hiring of Mike Tannenbaum.

“Gotta respect ross for keeping his jew buddies employed but did he not see how tannenbaum put the jets in the dumpster w/that sanchez deal?” she tweeted, in a reference to Tannenbaum’s unsuccessful tenure as general manager of the New York Jets, where he offered quarterback Mark Sanchez an ill-fated contract extension.

The tweet was met with criticism, including from one user who wrote, “I've never been negative towards you because I think your [sic] honest, but 'Jew Buddies'? No need to be antisemitic.”

Another user wrote, “It's frightening she doesn't realize how racist that term is”, while another wrote, “Do you have any idea how racist the term "jew buddies" is? Will you have the grace to apologise?”

Brent Grimes, a four-time Pro Bowl cornerback, was released by the Dolphins in March, noted JTA. Rumors spread at the time that his wife’s Twitter controversies, which often involved scathing criticism of the team's quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, cost him his job and hurt his reputation in the eyes of other National Football League teams.

Ross acknowledged at the NFL owners' meetings in March that Miko Grimes’ tweets played a role in her husband's fate with the Dolphins.

"I think everybody knows what she represented," Ross said to reporters, according to ESPN. "I thought it was best that the Dolphins move on from Brent and Miko."

Miko Grimes deleted her Twitter account for a short time after the Dolphins released her husband, who has since been signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it is now back up online.

She clarified her comments in a statement to ESPN, but on Monday lashed out at the network for covering the story in a series of new tweets.

"When I wrote 'jew buddies,' I was speaking about how a lot of communities (Jewish, Christian, gay, sometimes fraternities and sororities) will hire their 'own people' for jobs before others. That's a fact! Why people find facts offensive is strange to me,” said Grimes.

On Monday, however, she attacked the network and wrote on Twitter, “Hey ESPN... Remember when Stephen A. Smith beat his ex wife and yall covered it up and let him keep his job? That was very kind of u guys. But i tweet jewish people hire their own, AS A COMPLIMENT, and now its all over the news. Get the entire f--- outta here!”

The Buccaneers are owned by Bryan, Edward and Joel Glazer, who are descendants of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants.

ESPN reported that the Buccaneers are aware of the tweet, but has yet to comment.

Last year, a football player in Canada was fined by the Canadian Football League (CFL) and his team over anti-Semitic tweets.

Khalif Mitchell, a defensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes, was fined after he tweeted a link to a 2015 YouTube video titled “The greatest lie ever told – The Holocaust,” which called the murder of 6 million Jews an “alleged” act.

He later apologized for the offensive tweets.