Dave Zirin said it best in last week’s episode of Outside the Lines, “If you play with a scorpion, don’t be shocked if you get stung.” Well, ESPN just got stung, and instead of continuing to play with the scorpion, they grabbed the nearest newspaper and squashed it.
I’m not supporting Williams’ comments. The guy is a dope, a bigot, and pretty much a personification of everything wrong with this country. But that’s beside the point. What really got me upset about this situation was why was this guy hired in the first place and why did ESPN not take all of the blame for his actions.
ESPN knew what they were getting in Williams before hiring the one-sided politically vocal Republican, but yet, they went forward with him. Why? Was it his celebrity status? (I had no idea who this guy was before Oct. 3, which explains my lack of preparedness before each Monday Night Football game – thank you Colbert).
Was it to expand diversity among the audience, by hiring an ignorant country star whose hit song is, “If the South Woulda Won?” Where in the song Williams says, “We’d put Florida on the right track ‘cause, we’d take Miami back?” (Seriously?!)
OK, so what’s done is done. ESPN hires Williams for the NFL pregame. Fast-forward to FOX & Friends (the #1 news source on television), Williams publically compares Obama to Hitler and calls Obama and Biden “the enemy.” At this point ESPN has to be thankful that the scorpion took so long to sting.
Here is when events start to get confusing. I understand ESPN’s decision to pull the song from that Monday night’s game, but I don’t understand why in just a couple days later to completely remove Williams, and especially with a comment such as “We are extremely disappointed.”
ESPN should have taken full responsibility for his actions because of the widely known character of Williams. ESPN brings him in, and then after one hiccup (probably from the Jack Daniels), immediately drops him?
Williams is not exactly an employee of ESPN, but represents the organization. With that said, I thought ESPN completely threw him under the bus, which really hurts ESPN’s image of how they treat employees. If ESPN really wanted to get rid of Williams, they should have suspended him for a couple of games, and then part ways at the end of the season.
(I hope this doesn’t effect my Assistant Producer application for Around the Horn)
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