Are you ready for some football scandals? Well you won't be hearing the voice of Hank Williams Jr. kicking off this week's big game.
Appearing on Fox & Friends to talk politics today -- a topic he's always been very vocal about -- Williams landed himself in some hot water after seemingly comparing President Barack Obama to Hilter.
The country singer, whose voice famously asks football fans "Are you ready for some football?" each week, criticized the president's recent "golf summit" with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, saying it "would be like Hitler playing golf with Benjamin Netanyahu [the Israeli leader]."
After the show's hosts asked him to clarify, giving him the chance to gloss over that statement, he laughed instead of backing down. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." When one host pointed out that he'd compared the president to one of the most hated people in the world, he replied: "Well that's true ... but I'm telling you like it is ... Like Fred Thompson said, 'You don't want to ask me a question, because I'm gonna give you too straight of an answer.'"
ESPN released this statement:
"While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast."
Williams explained during the Fox News telecast that he made the comparison because the president was "the enemy," but has since released a statement of his own:
"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point. 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. I have always respected the office of the President."
"Every time the media brings up the tea party it's painted as racist and extremists, but there's never a backlash -- no outrage to those comparisons ... Working class people are hurting and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. 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. Something has to change. The policies have to change."
No word yet on if Williams' intro will resume next week.
What do you think: Were Williams' comments taken too seriously? Or does he deserve to get fired?
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