IRONY: Monday Night Football BROUGHT BACK Hank Williams, Jr
Monday Night Football hopes to relive the glory days.
And they figured this one stunt might do it.
According to the Tennessean,
ESPN is bringing Hank Williams Jr. — and all his rowdy friends — back into the Monday Night Football fold, six years after the sports network parted ways with the brash country rocker following controversial remarks involving then-President Barack Obama.
Williams’ new version of “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night,” with his trademark opening: “Are you ready for some football?” will debut before a Sept. 11 game between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings.
“I think it’s a return to our past in that it’s such an iconic song associated with football,” said Stephanie Druley, ESPN’s senior vice president of events and studio production.
“It was the original,” Druley told The USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee. “It belongs to Monday Night Football…is about returning to what fans know. It’s a Monday night party and that’s what we’re all hoping to get back to.”
Translation: ESPN hopes to get back to good NFL ratings.
Remember the good old days of football, when most of these guys played for the purity of the sport…and the paycheck. I’m all about capitalism, but I can’t stand social justice warriors.
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Ironically, as The Week reported back in 2011, it was Hank Wiliams, Jr’s political comments that got him canned.
On Thursday, ESPN officially pulled the plug on its famous “Are you ready for some football?” Monday Night Football theme song, following a bizarre rant by singer Hank Williams Jr. On Fox and Friends earlier this week, Williams called Democrats “the enemy,” and argued that the president’s golf game this summer with House Speaker John Boehner (R) was “like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.” Following the ESPN’s announcement, Williams insisted that it was actually him who walked away from ESPN, claiming that the network infringed on his First Amendment rights — but nobody’s buying it. Was his termination justified — or is ESPN overreacting?
Keep in mind Williams appeared on a political show where he gave his opinion. He didn’t take a knee in protest of America’s worst president ever.
While Williams got fired, we all know what’s happened to the players who protested, save one: the originator, Colin Kaepernick.
Aaron Goldstein at The American Spectator. said at the time that Williams deserved to be fired. Likening Obama to Hitler is “an insult to both those who died and survived the concentration camps.” Williams may regret his “dumb statement,” but it’s too late. Besides, “we conservatives do ourselves no favors by comparing Obama to Hitler” — not when there’s an intelligent debate to be had about real issues.
And we don’t do ourselves any favors running from the Left for the things that need saying.
But who wins in the end?
Not the NFL.
They bring back an iconic song, and an iconic musician. But it won’t be enough, even with the twist.
The music video, which will air during ESPN’s Monday Night Football each game week of the 2017 NFL season, was filmed in Nashville Sunday and includes two additional contemporary music artists to freshen the song’s presentation. The new acts will be named later this week and each artist will be featured in every Monday Night Football opening, the song lyrics being changed each game to reflect the competing football teams.
Hank Williams Jr certainly didn’t expect to return to ESPN or this unexpected win.
While in his dressing room during a break from filming the commercial, Williams revealed, “I never said, ‘Are you ready for some football’ on stage one time the last five or six years, but I will now. I’m feeling at home and it’s a real good thing … It’s kind of like the Nashville Predators playing for the Stanley Cup, it’s like ‘Wow.’”
Williams first performed the song back in 1989. The tune is based on his hit “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” and was featured during the 20th anniversary season of Monday Night Football.
Sadly, I hadn’t heard a single person who told me that ESPN had reprised the iconic tune. That’s because nobody was watching the game.
If there is any good news about the NFL controversy, it’s that Hank Williams, Jr got his gig back. And in a strange twist of fate it was politics that reinstated him.
A return to Williams marks a departure from Obama. The return of Williams may also signal a departure from the nonsense of the NFL soon.
