NFL analyst apologizes after backlash from this photo of him holding a gun

Former NFL player and current CBS television analyst Jay Feely apologized Sunday for posting a picture on Twitter showing him holding a gun that offended some users.

Feely posted the picture, which included his daughter and her prom date, as an apparent joke.

What was the picture?

Feely posted a picture of himself with his daughter and her prom date on Saturday. He had his left arm around his daughter, and in his right, he was holding a handgun pointed toward the ground in front of her daughter's date.

The caption of the photo read: "Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great time at prom #BadBoys".

The hashtag is possibly a reference to a scene in the movie "Bad Boys 2" showing Will Smith and Martin Lawrence intimidating a teenage boy with a gun before he was set to go on a date with Lawrence's character's daughter.

How did people react?

While some users understood and appreciated the joke, others took the picture very seriously.

"I mean, we get the reference, but this was terribly out of touch with guns safety," one user replied. "And out of touch with not making that picture and night about you."

"It is not funny," another user replied. "It is violent, misogynist, misandrous & patriarchal. There is nothing funny about anything this photo portrays."

As the comments went on, the conversation evolved into a gun safety and gun control debate, with some users accusing Feely of being an irresponsible gun owner or of taking the issue of gun violence lightly.

As of Monday morning, the photo had been retweeted more than 20,000 times and liked more than 125,000 times.

Feely's apology

Seeing the heated discussion and negative reaction surrounding the photo, Feely issued an apology Sunday.

"The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke," Feely wrote in a follow-up tweet. "My daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking. I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue."

(H/T: ESPN)