Hank Williams' comments too rowdy for ESPN

Are you ready for some football? Good, because football will still be with us on Monday nights. The song that introduces Monday Night Football, however, will change. ESPN severed its ties with country legend Hank Williams, Jr. this week after comments he made on the Fox & Friends morning show. Williams compared a golf outing between President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner to Adolf Hitler meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He identified President Obama as Hitler and Speaker Boehner as Prime Minister Netanyahu. This is wrong on so many levels, but I'll only address two here. Both are relative to us as adults and our kids.

My mom had a seven-word sentence for me whenever I said something mean or disrespectful. It served as a stern warning and sound advice. She said, "Sol, you need to watch your mouth!" Now Ms. Ruth didn't invent that statement. I'm sure many of you heard your parents say the same thing or something similar. In this situation, Williams resorted to name calling to describe the President of the United States. Whenever you call someone something other than their given name, trouble almost always ensues. Let's look at the name 'Hitler' for a moment. Adolf Hitler was a murderer of the highest order (or lowest). He placed all of his efforts toward destroying an entire race of people and killed six million of them in the process.

We are far too cavalier in calling someone 'Hitler.' Just in my little world, I've heard it used to describe teachers, parents, coaches, supervisors, politicians, cab drivers, police officers, video store clerks...you get the idea. No one you or I know personally or see on TV is Hitler. Name calling wasn't nice when I was 12 and it's still not now that I'm 35. The second point has to do with free speech. Many people have complained that ESPN violated Williams' free speech rights by removing his song from Monday Night Football. Alright, let's go to school. The free speech provision made by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech..."

This means that the government cannot place limits on speech. It says nothing about a private business. If Hank Williams had been arrested for what he said, that would be a violation of free speech. ESPN not wanting to pay him anymore is not. Let me make it plain. You can tell your boss where to go and how to get there. The police will not come and arrest you, but you will get fired. We teach our kids similar lessons all the time. They can't disrespect their teachers and coaches and not expect a suspension from school or the team.  Nobody goes to jail, but there are consequences for irresponsible speech. Watch the ESPN story concerning the flap below (email subscribers click here). Maybe Williams will learn a valuable lesson about responsibility from this situation - or not. Until next time...

Be a Good Sport!

-Sol