ESPN drops Hank Williams Jr. from 'Monday Night Football'

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY

After ESPN dropped Hank Williams Jr. from opening Monday Night Football tonight after Williams’ controversial comments Monday about President Obama, the singer now says he was “misunderstood.”

Says ESPN, in a statement: “While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize he is closely linked to our company through the opening to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

Williams, perhaps best known for his “are you ready for some football?” lead-in to ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Monday compared this summer’s so-called golf summit between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner as “one of the biggest political mistakes ever.”

As Williams put it on Fox News’ Fox & Friends: “It would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli leader) Benjamin Netanyahu.”

When asked on Fox to explain his analogy, Williams said Obama and Vice President Biden are “the enemy.”

In a statement Monday night, Williams says that with his comment about Obama and Boehner playing golf this summer he was “simply trying to show how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was.” Williams says Boehner and Obama “are polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will.”

Although ESPN has a policy about its on-air personalities getting involved in politics, Williams has said he’s interested in running as a Republican in 2012 for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. NFL.com has a portion of the interview available. To watch more of Williams’ Fox appearance, click here.

Original article can be viewed here

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