Ex-Richmond player Mal Brown has apologised for joking that Aboriginal footballers were cannibals in what he described as a light-hearted address at a football lunch.
His comments have been condemned by the AFL and Brown apologised on Thursday for his gaffe when he spoke to Fairfax Radio.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou says the league was shocked and appalled by the remarks made by Brown at an EJ Whitten lunch on Wednesday.
"Those comments are not funny and they are not a reflection of what the AFL stands for, or the wider AFL community, or for that matter the wider community in general," Mr Demetriou said.
Brown was doing some fence-mending today, saying the AFL function had consisted of ex-players taking the mickey out of each other and he made some remarks "which weren't as funny as I thought".
He said he grew up with Aborigines in Western Australia and played football with them.
He said his comments, referring to the early days of the EJ Whitten Legends matches, were meant to reflect what happened 15 years ago and not what happens in 2010.
Brown, who played 14 games with the Tigers in 1974, said the term "cannibal" or expression "little black bugger" were used as terms of endearment.
"There was never any racism, or they were treated worse than anybody else - they were treated exactly the same as everybody else by me because they were given a fair go," Brown said.
"All you eastern states people, you think you can solve the problem by just giving them money over the years.
"The most important thing is like bringing up your children, you've got to put in time ... my life has been about putting in time and being friends with them all my life."
He said his comments were meant to be in jest but he accepted they were inappropriate.
"I'm not a racist, I've helped Aboriginal boys and grown up with them all my life," he said. "I'm happy for the Aboriginal people to judge me when I die for what I have done, not for what I've said."
In a statement, Mr Demetriou said Brown's comments were inappropriate, insulting and hurtful.
"We learned from (Essendon star) Michael Long and others back in 1995 how damaging comments like those of yesterday are and as a result took action to stop vilification of any kind," Mr Demetriou said.
"Indigenous players and communities have made and are making an enormous contribution to our game.
"Our view is that there is no place for racial vilification of anyone whether on the field, in the stands or in the community."
