It’s Monday night, you’ve got your chips, you are setting up the recliner, and have the clicker in hand. You turn on the TV and you hear the song you have come to know and love on Monday Nights, “Are you ready for some football!?”
After the song is over than you know its game time and it gives you a sense of adrenaline that gets you pumped up to watch some football, but where has it gone?
If you watch MNF religiously like I do you might notice something different this year. The MNF theme song has been blacked out… and I died a little inside.
The country-singing star and voice of the “Monday Night Football” theme song, Hank Williams Jr., appeared on “Fox and Friends” to talk politics on the morning of October 3rd.
Right off the bat you knew he wasn’t going to hold anything back when he said didn’t like any of the presidential candidates for the republican party.
He than went on to says that John Boehner, The Speaker of the house, playing golf was a huge mistake.
He went on to say, “That would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister). Not hardly. In the shape this country is in? They’re the enemy… Obama! And Biden! Are you kidding? The Three Stooges.”
WOAH! I know what you are thinking; probably not the smartest thing to say on a nationwide program, but you got to admit, the guys got grapes. Unfortunately, ESPN did not take too kindly to those remarks and by the end of the week; ESPN had severed ties with the longtime curtain raiser for Monday Night Football, a decision that resulted in no small amount of controversy.
They also went on to say that John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president of content, and a number of other executives made the decision “fairly quick”.
I can see both sides of the story here because ESPN has many policies on political advocacy and has dealt with similar incidents like this in the past, but it definitely didn’t help when Hank Williams Jr. didn’t understand why his comments were “such a big deal”.
Williams really dug himself a big hole, but in my opinion I wouldn’t have punished the country music star for his comments. I believe that ESPN saw that as a reflection on them and the comments ruined their reputation, but who is going to stop watching ESPN just because of what a country music star said?
HE DOESN’T EVEN PLAY SPORTS HE SINGS! It’s just plain stupidity. He probably lost more fans in the process than ESPN lost viewers, but then again maybe he didn’t lose supporters because many may agree with him.
I really can’t imagine many people taking offense to it because the only people that should be offended are those he mentioned negatively. Some people just feel strongly about these subjects and get really passionate in the process.
I don’t think the country singer should have ever gotten punished for it especially because he came up with the best football song ever.
