On January 18th 2010  Mike Greenberg of ESPN’s Mike & Mike In The Morning spoke the following ” Mike & Mike In The Morning on ESPN Radio talking Football with you on this Martin Luther C’word King Jr. holiday”…

  Later that evening Mike Greenburg issued this statement on ESPN:

“I just came home from the Knicks game and found out about the mess that was created by my garbling a sentence on our show this morning;  I apologize for not addressing it sooner.

And I’m sorry that my talking too fast – and slurring my words – might have given people who don’t know our show the wrong impression about us, and about me.

I feel horrible about that, because nothing could be further away from who I am and what our show is about.

I would never say anything like that, not in public, or in private, or in the silence of my own mind, and neither would anyone associated with our show, and I’m very sorry that my stumble this morning gave so many people the opposite impression.”

            ________________________________________________

 

29
Leave a Comment

Please Login to comment
10 Comment threads
19 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
9 Comment authors
Pepe LepewGirlOutWestjavazescribacatKirk Recent comment authors
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
bito
Member

THE GOVERNMENT shall make no laws restricting……..

Many others can including one self.

Pepe Lepew
Member

Man, I read about this on Deadspin. Absolutely, the guy should’ve been punished more. Even if it was somehow an innocent “slip of the tongue” (Highly doubtful), the guy should’ve gotten a suspension.

There used to be some kids on a weekly sports talk show on a college station here, and they infuriated me, because they kept going on and on about “so and so is a really good wide receiver for a white guy,” or “so and so is like a lot of black quarterbacks, he has a cannon for an arm, but doesn’t manage the game well.” A little more subtle than “Martin Luther Coon” but ugly stuff, nonetheless, IMO. I wrote the station a couple of angry e-mails. Those kids aren’t on the station this year. They might’ve just graduated or decided not to do it, but I’d like to think the station fired them.

GirlOutWest
Member
GirlOutWest

Tiger99 that was beautifully written. On two occasions I have heard people I know and care about use the “N” word and it shocks the heck out of me. When it has happened I did mention it but I have to say both times the people in question had a buzz on. I know that is no excuse because obviously the thought is in their heads, but maybe they hide it from themselves so well it comes out when they are uninhibited and a little out of control.

javaz
Member

Thank you, Tiger, for bringing this to attention.
There should be outrage over this, but it’s not getting any air time that I am aware.
I’m shocked actually that this guy would blurt such a thing and then try to explain it away as a slip of the tongue or garbled speech.
Hopefully, other blog sites pick this story up.

AdLib
Admin

I don’t believe at all that this was an arbitrary combination of consonants and vowels.

It appears solely as force of habit. As you describe, Tiger, someone goes through life hearing and repeating a series of words together and it is second nature to always use them together.

He couldn’t help himself, those words are connected in his mind the way the words “Martin Luther King” come as a package to everyone else who isn’t like him.

Is it because he says it so fast that this is less of a story out there?

Khirad
Member

To me the C’word has a whole different meaning.

What I’m saying is, there’s little chance it could have come off my tongue, because who on earth says that word anymore?

escribacat
Member

I can’t imagine this was an innocent slip of the tongue. I’ve never even heard that phrase before. This reminds me of my brothers, who think it’s perfectly fine to make racist jokes but then when I tell them they are racist, they act offended.

Kirk
Member

Another Wake-up Call…..

Just when seems like, maybe we have made progress in our humanness and compassion, Whammy, a gentle slam of your head against the wall of bigotry, once again opens your eyes to the fact that, many of these “asleep” individuals have just gone underground to avoid being recognized. Imagine how hard it is to keep all that hatred hidden inside, it has to ooze out sooner or later.

Khirad
Member

Um, yeah, I could have never made that slip, ’cause I never hear that before. Although, I know what they did to NAACP, so it don’t surprise me, be he seemed like he’d just the night before slammin’ a few back with his buddies in rapt anticipation of the AABA, where they might once again see fundamentals like no jump shot, etc by teams such as Wichita White Lightning and the Washington Grand Wizards.

It rolled of his tongue just as you described it come off your coworker’s. Way too natural. Only excuse I could see, is if he were watching a documentary the night before on Dr. King where he was repeatedly accosted with such slurs. Somehow I doubt the latter scenario…

bito
Member

Tiger, I read a very small blurb on this at the end of a Yahoo sports story but like you say it was on someone’s blog. Perhaps I am a bit guilty of not saying anything about it. I thought it was going to make,at least,the round on sports talk/blogs sites. He ha said that more than once in his life! That just didn’t come from nowhere. Good catch Tiger.

(Having been raised a Lutheran, when I saw your title, I thought the post was about religion–Martin Luther/Martin Luther King, jr.)

Khirad
Member

If anything he and black Gospel proved to the namesake that indeed the devil did not hold a monopoly on all the best tunes.

bito
Member

I loved the Lutheran hymns. Still do. Black Gospel? WOW!

Khirad
Member

It’s the one drawback in being Unitarian. Not quite the same musical tradition… 😕