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ESPN Permanently Drops Football Pregame Song
Three days after the country music singer Hank Williams Jr. referred to Hitler while talking about President Obama, ESPN on Thursday permanently cut his opening song to “Monday Night Football,” which includes the catchphrase “Are you ready for some football?”
ESPN dropped the song from its presentation of the Colts-Buccaneers game Monday night in response to Williams’s remarks, and then deliberated about taking further action.
ESPN said Thursday that it was its decision to end a long association with Williams, but he disputed that on his Web site: “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made my decision. By pulling my opening Oct. 3, you (ESPN) stepped on the toes of the First Amendment freedom of speech, so therefore me, my song and all my rowdy friends are out of here. It’s been a great run.”
Williams may not be right about his First Amendment rights being violated, but Bruce W. Sanford, a First Amendment expert at the law firm Baker Hostetler, said he “wouldn’t pounce too hard on him for not being a constitutional lawyer.”
“He seems to be saying that ESPN is discouraging his freedom of speech, which it certainly is,” Sanford said. “But it is entitled to do so as a private company which does not have to use a tone-deaf politico to sing into its kickoffs.”
In its statement, ESPN said: “We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams Jr. We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of ‘Monday Night Football’ has always been about the games, and that will continue.”
ESPN, which informed Williams of its decision shortly before issuing its statement, had no comment on Williams’s version of events.
The controversy began Monday on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show on the Fox News Channel. Williams criticized Obama, a Democrat, and House Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, for their round of golf over the summer, saying it would be like “Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu,” referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
When one of the show’s hosts said he did not understand the analogy, Williams said: “I’m glad you don’t, brother, because a lot of people do. They’re the enemy: Obama! And Biden! Are you kidding? The Three Stooges.”
In one of two statements issued by Williams since the incident, he acknowledged that the Obama-Hitler analogy was “extreme.” He said, “I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me ... how ludicrous that pairing was” — meaning Obama and Boehner.
“They’re polar opposites, and it made no sense. They don’t see eye to eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president.”
Williams also said, “When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job — it makes a whole lot of us angry.”
Williams first sang “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” for a meeting of the ABC station affiliates in 1986. In 1989, he adapted the lyrics for the 20th anniversary of “Monday Night Football” on ABC.
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