Mississippi State coach Mike Leach apologized Thursday for a since-deleted tweet that showed a meme of a woman knitting her husband a noose during self-quarantine.

Leach removed the tweet, which was posted Wednesday night, and had the caption, "After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf .."

The tweet received nearly 3,700 likes but also criticism, including some from Mississippi State players who are black.

Leach tweeted Thursday, "I sincerely regret if my choice of images in my tweets were found offensive. I had no intention of offending anyone."

The first-year Mississippi State coach frequently posts memes in his Twitter feed. He has more than 350,000 followers on the social media platform.