There is dumb, and then, there is DUMB.
Earlier this week, Colin Cowherd took the high road when discussing his pending departure from ESPN Radio for Fox Sports Radio, and praised ESPN for giving him a chance when he started there 10 years ago. Before the week was over, however, Cowherd was out at ESPN.
Cowherd was fired Friday after he made some insensitive comments about Latin players in baseball, noting that a good percentage of players come from the Dominican Republic. You'd think he'd just quote the statistics and move on, but there were things he said that upset the Major League Baseball Players Association, which threatened to boycott both ESPN & Fox unless something was done with Cowherd. When his Fox Sports program bows, I'd believe he'd have to do a major mea culpa to make peace with the MLBPA.
Cowherd's dismissal came just hours after WWE did the same with Hulk Hogan.
Hogan, until yesterday, was serving as a judge on the current Tough Enough, but didn't really contribute anything noteworthy in the first month of the season. What cooked his goose were some recorded comments made between 2007 and 2012, the latter while filming a sex tape with Heather Clem, the wife of Hogan's now-former BFF, Todd Clem, aka radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Hogan is involved in litigation against the website Gawker.com over the tape. Unsurprisingly, the National Enquirer, desperate for a legitimate headline to sell papers, since it now belongs in the fiction section of bookstores instead of on supermarket shelves (If you don't believe me, check out the latest faux headlines), got hold of some of the audio tapes. Where Hogan went wrong was in using the N-word repeatedly on these tapes, and in the case of his recording with Heather Clem, in describing daughter Brooke's relationship with an African-American.
Others have noted the hypocrisy involved in this case, seeing as how Vince McMahon, who's more out of touch with reality than Hogan, used the N-word in a skit with John Cena and Booker T a few years back. There's also the whispers that Triple H, despite his good works behind the scenes, is a closet bigot, which might explain why he didn't drop the World title to Booker in 2003. The attitude, then, from WWE, would be to do as we say, but not do as we do.
The lesson? We live in a hypersensitive, politically correct society today. In Hogan's case, there will be people digging for dirt wherever they can find it, and make it public, even if the tape is nearly a decade old. Never has the phrase, "the public has a right to know", been more overused than it has in recent years. Cowherd & Hogan each receive a Dunce Cap. Cowherd for his own contradictions, and Hogan for past verbal indiscretions being brought forward in a negative light.
And while we're at it, we might as well send a box of Dunce Caps out WWE's way, since I'd not be surprised if, within 2-3 years or less, Hogan is welcomed back with open arms, and all would be forgiven. If he's smart, and he clearly hasn't lately, Hogan would be better served quietly walking off into retirement. Then we'd all move on.
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