Recently Hank Williams Jr. has been in the news because of a statement he made that compared President Obama to Hitler and that got him into hot water with ESPN. The comments were made during his appearance on Fox News Channel’s morning show Fox & Friends and quickly spread through the web along.
For years Williams Jr. has been associated with ESPN and Monday Night Football with his song “All My Rowdy Friends” became the opening theme song for the Monday night NFL game. Immediately following Williams Jr’s statement ESPN pulled the song from the last Monday’s NFL game and issued a statement distancing the company from Hank Williams Jr; but there was no mention of it being a permanent situation.
That stance has apparently changed as ESPN issued a statement today saying that they have decided to part ways with Williams Jr permanently. In a statement released by Williams Jr he tried to spin the situation to make it his decision to pull the song claiming his First Amendment rights where stepped on.
ESPN has decided that rather than replace the opening song with another musical intro they will instead be going with a narrated opening by Detroit Lions Hall of Famer Barry Sanders. The open will highlight the stadium atmosphere and then cut to preview segments with booth commentators.
