Posted by Will BrinsonUPDATE (5:50 p.m. ET): We reached out to ESPN for comment and we were informed they are pulling the Hank Williams, Jr., intro from Monday Night Football's telecast for Monday's game between the Buccaneers and the Colts.
“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," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told CBSSports.com. "We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast."
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The latest sports-related figure to invoke Godwin's Law -- the act of comparing someone in modern culture to legendary very bad person Adolph Hitler -- picked a pretty bad subject for comparison, as Hank Williams, Jr., voice of Monday Night Football on ESPN, decided to hop on Fox and Friends and compare Barack Obama to the German dictator.
But, no, really, this happened. Williams decided to point out that it was foolish of House Majority Leader John Boehner to play golf with Barack Obama.
"Come on, come on, that would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," he said. "In the shape this country is in?"
Wait! Don't pick your jaw up off the floor just yet. He wasn't done.
Hosts Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson were stunned (and later apologized for the remarks), but Kilmeade managed to point out that he doesn't "really understand that analogy." So Williams clarified it.
"I'm glad you don't brother, because a lot of people do," Williams said. "They're the enemy... Obama! And Biden! Are you kidding? The Three Stooges."
No, Williams did not list a third stooge, but maybe he was just referring to himself?
It was a gaffe of pretty epic proportions and unfortunately for Hank -- and ESPN -- they managed to shift the conversation directly to his 20th year with the WWL as the guy who screams the theme song at the beginning of the show.
"A one-year deal that keeps on going sure is fun," Williams said of his tenure with MNF.
Of course, that only works if it actually keeps on going.
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