Bad sports, good sports: Hank Williams Jr. gets himself fired for stupidity

Posted on October 10th, 2011 by Alan Spoll

“Are you ready for some football” with a different song leading into the broadcast? For the past twenty years, Monday Night Football has started with Hank Williams Jr.’s query, a modified version of his song, “All My Rowdy Friends.” Williams lost the best gig he ever had this week, getting himself and his song removed from the ESPN presentation of MNF by badmouthing President Obama and Vice President Biden, calling them “the enemy,” and comparing Barack Obama and House speaker John Boehner playing golf together to Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doing the same.

I know little about Hank Williams Jr. The people I know that are knowledgeable in country music tell me that he was always a bit of a hack, living mostly on his name (he is the son of country music legend Hank Williams) as opposed to any particular talent of his own. The original version of “All My Rowdy Friends” is an ode to partying, drinking, and raising hell. The MNF version was obviously cleaned up, focusing on football rather than bacchanalia. As much as I don’t like Williams’ style of music, I never minded the theme song. It seemed to fit well with the tone that ABC (and later, ESPN) was trying to set. After reading Williams’ comments, I knew that the song was about to be given the old heave-ho. I find that kind of rhetoric revolting and dangerous. Sure, we have had presidents I have not liked, and I have certainly made comments to that effect. As much as I may have disliked and disagreed with those presidents, though, I would never have gone where Williams went. The Hitler comment is not only absurd and bizarre, it is also the kind of thing that regularly gets people fired. The singer can’t have been surprised when ESPN immediately removed the song from that night’s broadcast, or when he was fired permanently later in the week.

As you would expect, Williams quickly tried to make excuses for his stupidity, saying, essentially, that he was exaggerating to make his point. What he seemed to miss was that his point, even without exaggeration, was idiotic.

“I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will.”

So his point was that two people with differing ideologies should not attempt to work together or find any middle ground. Instead, they should stay on their own sides of the street, I guess, only associating with the other by openly fighting. Sounds like a solid recommendation for our government. There has been a lot of that kind of sentiment in Washington this year, and I don’t believe we are seeing things get better because of it. The statement that Obama and Biden are “the enemy” is what bothered me most, even more than the Hitler comment. The latter means nothing, and was entirely intended to be outrageous. The “enemy” comment is truly dangerous, though, in my view. I wish I could believe that Williams was the only one out there who felt that way.

When I saw this issue discussed on some sports message boards, I saw a number of mentions of the First Amendment, upon which the posters felt ESPN had trodden. Williams himself, after being officially let go by ESPN, made a similar claim. Of course, as is often the case with people who use the Constitution to defend stupidity, they are wrong about the actual contents of the document. The First Amendment states, essentially, that the government can not prevent someone from speaking freely, or prosecute them for doing so. Nothing in the Constitution says that a private business, which ESPN is, can not fire someone who represents it due to something said by that individual. The network was completely within its rights to can Williams, and I am certain that virtually every other network out there (save Fox News, maybe) would have done likewise.

As a non-fan of country music, I expect I have heard the last of Hank Williams Jr. Good riddance.

Bad sports, continued:

2) The baseball teams that finished with the best record in both the American and National leagues lost in the first round of the playoffs this week. On Thursday, the New York Yankees were eliminated by the Detroit Tigers, and on Friday, my Philadelphia Phillies were sent home by the St. Louis Cardinals, despite having won 102 games in the regular season, a franchise record. Disappointing.

3) Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis died on Saturday at the age of 82. He had owned the Raiders since the mid-sixties, and the team won three Super Bowls during his stewardship.

4) UFC fighter Din Thomas was injured in a car accident on his way to a bout on Friday, causing the fight to be canceled.

5) For the first time since 1982, no college football team from Florida was ranked in the Associated Press top 25 football poll. Both Florida and Florida State dropped out after losses on Saturday. I suppose this could be a Good Sports story, as that is a rather remarkable run of nearly 30 years with at least one team in the poll.

6) Never one to take the path-of-least-publicity, Brett Favre took a bit of a swipe at Aaron Rodgers, his successor as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, when asked about Rodgers during a radio interview in Atlanta on Tuesday. Favre commented that he was surprised that it took Rodgers so long to win a Super Bowl after his own departure from the team, considering how much talent was on that team and the fact that he got to learn from a player of whom Favre obviously has a very high opinion (himself).

7) A New Jersey high school football player injured over 20 players on the team his school had defeated on Friday by shaking hands with the opposing players while wearing a glove with a tack stuck through it. The kid had not even played in the game, as he was currently ineligible. He should be prosecuted.

8) In the final round of the Frys.com Open on Sunday, a drunk spectator ran out onto the green at the seventh hole and threw a hot dog at Tiger Woods. You can’t make this stuff up.

Good sports:

1) Austin Pacheco, a high school kicker for the Carson High School football team in Nevada, kicked a 64 yard field goal on Friday. That is longer than the NFL’s all-time record, although Pacheco’s kick was from a tee, rather than from the ground, the way the NFL kickers do it. Still, that is pretty impressive.

2) In case you didn’t see it, check out the ceremonial first pitch thrown out before the Arizona Diamondbacks game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. Raise your hand if that is way better than you could have done.

Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02