As Stephen T. McCarthy noted
on his blog earlier this week, Bocephus (Hank Williams, Jr.) was dismissed by ESPN for a comment made about President Obama, and as Stephen correctly points out, there really was no basis for ESPN making the move.
ESPN permanently pulled Williams’ theme "Are You Ready For Some football?" (a reworked version of "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight") from its "Monday Night Football" telecasts because of his statements.
Williams, however, said that last Tuesday night he informed his manager to "tell ESPN and Disney adios."
Williams added that "As of May 1st in 2012, ladies and gentlemen, me and my song will be free agents." His song had been used for 22 years by the program.
Williams, who likened Obama and House Speaker John Boehner’s golf game to a hypothetical one between Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was not saying Obama was like Hitler and added that his comment was misunderstood.
Williams stopped by "The View" on Tuesday to discuss his comments, telling the hosts he has no regrets.
"I’m not calling him Hitler," he said. "It’s an analogy."
Liberals, including high-level members of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) were astounded, rumored to have said "We did not think a redneck knew what 'analogy' meant, let alone be able to use it in a sentence."
Okay, I made that last one up because I loathe the terror tactics those organizations use to intimidate their views into the mainstream. But isn't it a sad state of affairs when a man gets fired from his job for saying something while he is not on the job about something that has nothing to do with his job?
You might think an American citizen had a right to make comments freely….maybe what we need is a Citizen's Bill Of Rights.
Oh, that's right-we already are supposed to have one!
Even after all of the controversy his statement stirred, Williams said he does not wish he had used a different comparison. "You know what, at this point, I really don’t," Williams said.
Williams repeatedly denied he had linked Obama directly to Hitler, telling the hosts, "It could’ve been, how do they know who I’m talking about? I guess it’s called stepping on the toes of freedom of speech."
Williams made another splash on Monday with his song "Keep the Change" with lyrics hitting back at "Fox & Friends" and ESPN.
"So Fox & Friends wanna put me down
Ask for my opinion then twist it all around
Supposed to be talkin’ about my father’s new CD
Well, two can play that gotcha game, just wait and see
Don’t tread on me!"
At the end of his song, Williams also added the lines
"Yeah, you can keep Fox & Friends and ESPN outta your homes, too!
‘Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends — and his song — is out of there!"
Williams is giving away the song for free on his website, and said on "The View" over 100,000 copies have been downloaded.
Williams is in good company, as he is not the first Caucasian to have ties severed with the NFL after "controversial" comments. He's just the first who was fired for making the comments on a forum that had nothing to do with the NFL!
The sports media are apparently such politically correct wimps that they simply bow to groups like the ACLU or SPLC.
Howard Cosell once referred to wideout Alvin Garrett as a "little monkey" on
Monday Night Football in 1983. Coincidentally, Cosell was not back the next season.
CBS analyst and amateur eugenicist Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder commented in 1988 that blacks were "
bred to be the better athlete because ... the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid." This time the firing was almost immediate.
Rush Limbaugh commented about the press coverage for quarterback Donovan McNabb, saying
"I don't think [McNabb's] been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there's a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."
The comment caused a lot of controversy and accusations of racism on the part of Limbaugh, forcing Limbaugh to resign.
Interestingly enough, at the time, other sports analysts and many fans shared Limbaugh's viewpoint, and McNabb was blamed for his team's loss in the Super Bowl and has played poorly in recent years.
Other examples include Steve Lyons, who was fired by Fox for cryptic remarks about Mexicans and Jews, Lee Hamilton, who resigned as a Vikings broadcaster for making racist comments, CBS broadcaster Billy Packer calling Allen Iverson a "tough monkey" during a Georgetown-Villanova game, and San Francisco radio personality Larry Krueger who was fired after calling the Giants' lineup "brain-dead Caribbean hitters."
When an African American makes the controversial comment, then it's ok.
On Dan Patrick's ESPN Radio program, NFL-star-turned-NFL-analyst Michael Irvin postulated that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who is white, owes his athletic ability to the miscegenation of a distant relative with one of her slave hands.
Or, as Irvin so eloquently put it,
"[Romo's] great, great, great, great Grandma pulled one of them studs up outta the barn."
Notice a double standard here?
The sports media is so AFRAID of organizations like the ACLU and SPLC that they'll let blacks do and say whatever they want, but they can't fire the whites fast enough.
Jimmy The Greek and Rush Limbaugh got fired for saying things that were TRUE.
Rush Limbaugh and Bocephus got fired for stating their opinions.
All the firings-white guys.
Michael Irvin (the black guy) makes an insensitive and totally out-of-line comment slandering Tony Romo AND his great great grandmother…and he's still on the air!
