At the end of the game, Griese apologized, saying that "Juan Pablo Montoya, he's one of the best drivers in NASCAR. Just want to apologize for the comment I made earlier in the ballgame.
ESPN has now released a statement to CFT addressing the "situation, and here's the text of it in its entirety.
"During today's telecast of the Ohio State-Minnesota college football game on ESPN, analyst Bob Griese made an inappropriate comment when discussing NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Bob apologized during the telecast, and plans to apologize again tonight during ESPN's college football programming after his plane lands. ESPN has spoken to Bob and he understands that his comment was uncalled for."
So, there you have it.
UPDATE: Instead of putting the second apology into a separate post and run the risk of running this into the ground any further, I'll just put the latest apology here and throw a new time stamp on it.
(Disclaimer: The management apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause to our valued readers.)
Anyway, here's the new statement from Griese, made at halftime of the Florida-Mississippi State game:
"Earlier today on our game I made an offensive comment regarding Juan Pablo Montoya as part of a NASCAR promo. It was regrettable and I should not have said it. I really enjoy NASCAR and I follow it closely and would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Juan, NASCAR and everyone else who heard my comment."
If it had been Jimmy Johnson and he said out having Burger King, would that have crossed a line? Am I missing something? Does Montoya not eat Mexican food? Don't tell me I have to start boycotting my favorite Mexican hang out. They have monster goblets of XX. If it had been Sarcozy and he said out having a crepe, would that have been wrong?
Glad Griese and ESPN handled it quickly and appropriately. Sorry the boneheads jumped you for posting it (though that's your job). Yeah, they're Irish, whatever, and wouldn't mind if someone said they were eating potatoes, etc., people who don't like it here can hop a plane, the world's gone sissy, yada, yada. Uh-huh, they're so thick-skinned that if you say "boo" to them on these boards they go nuts.
If Jimmie Johnson's name had been missing, Griese would not have said Johnson was out eating a hot dog. It was a stupid and needless dig at Montoya's ethnicity. He should have apologized. Now it's done.
who cares about this. did his comment make jcm spill his taco?....who cares....this is unbelievable...
I like tacos.
Griese was wrong Montoya was out having a chorizo perro.
Whoops!! Juan Pablo Montoya is from Columbia. Not everyone who speaks Spanish is from Mexico. Why don't these guys just read the promos and get back to football, which they're good at?
I wondered about that comment too when he said it. Not the smartest thing in the world to do Bob. It is not that big of a deal though.
I am more offended by Lee Corso saying that a team had shot their wad last week. Now that is kinda gross and Kirk H. couldn't stop laughing for several minutes because of it.
Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher)
→ Ian, you put a greased naked woman on all fours, with a dog collar around her neck and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here holding the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it - you don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?
Ian Faith
→ No, I don't! This is 1982, for God's sake...
Bobbi Flekman
→ That's right it's 1982. Get out of the Sixties. We don't have this mentality any more.
Ian Faith
→ Well you should have seen the cover they wanted to do. It wasn't a glove, believe me.
...
David St. Hubbins: It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever.
He's not Rush so his comment wasn't racist!
When will Griese apologize for his lackluster sperm and his horrible commentary. He's not as bad a Dan Dierdorf, but pretty bad.
OMG!!!! I cannot beilive this mess. All this because a TV announcer made a comment that a Hispanic NASCAR driver was having a taco. Has the American psyche become so fragile that a remark such as that brings this much attention. This announcer is in our homes every week (during football season), is his character considered to be so insensitive that his remark should be considered offensive to Hispaics and taken personally? Has this country really become a collection of psychological and mentally underdeveloped (selfish) children? People; GROW UP!!!
Why would a Columbian be sampling Mexican food? I guess because to Bob, anyone south of the border must be the same. Columbian food is about as similar to Mexican, as German is to French.
Last but most definitely not least; shame on ESPN, and anyone else who is making a big deal out of this, for making something out of NOTHING!! Save your apology for something important!
taco kisses for my benny!!!!!
So by saying the guy was eating instead of being on camera was taken as an attack on fat people??
This wasn't a did at montoya's ethnicity, you boneheads, it's a joke about his weight.
Juan Pablo Montoya is Columbian as in Coffee or Cartel ! He's an insult to NASCAR ! I'm surprised,he's lasted this long in NASCAR !
what if he had said, he guesses that robert deniro will be a big fan of those new black tacos?
yeah, it was a dumb thing to say, only because of the lack of differentiation between colombian and mexican...but it was just a dumb thing someone said, in a post kornheiser world we should be able to handle announcers saying dumb things without losing our excrement.
JoeSixPack,
That was the hardest I've laughed since I first watched that movie a LONG time ago. Thank you!!!
Was watching it and heard the first comment and then heard the apology but didn't get why.
Montoya is a fat arse, would he apologize if he said he was eating pizza or chicken wings?
I like pink tacos.
I didn't hear the comment, just read the report. But I think what's actually demeaning to the Hispanic culture is the very fact that this comment is considered demeaning. Is it considered by anyone to be demeaning to anyone, of any culture, when a wise crack is made that a Britisher is out sampling French cuisine? Is any cultural connection made with that, at all? The only reason this was judged for its offensiveness to the Hispanic culture, is because the Hispanic culture is deemed to need the extra sensitivity or protection. Which is only the case when the protected one is regarded as inferior by the regarder. Like, "you don't tell a fat lady joke to a fat lady". Sorry, but if I were Hispanic I'd want to be treated like everyone else, not like a fat lady.
He's not eating Mexican cuisine.He's doing BLOW!!! He is Colombian ya know
I'm Colombian, and I never had a taco until I moved to the US. He should think twice before implying that all latinos are basically Mexican. But he apologized so its all good.
They all sound alike to me.
No habla ingles.
If you listen to the way Griese reacts after the other announcer first mentions Montoya (a huge outburst of laughter from Griese), it's almost as through Griese thinks the FIRST announcer is making a joke when Montoya is mentioned, as if Griese had never heard of Montoya before.
Viewing this as a slip on Griese's part, I can't imagine how embarrassed he was after he'd realized what he said. Like Jenny Slate realizing that she'd just dropped the f-bomb on SNL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4XhdgjD64
He's Colombian so he sells it to the White man, you know the Nascar driver who got suspended earlier in the season.
First of all, I don't think this should be any bigger of a deal than it already is, but I do think that it was handled appropriately and this it wan't an overreaction.
There are two reasons while the comment was stupid/offensive.
1. It demonstrates obvious ignorance of the differences between Colombians and Mexicans. Griese, like many people, clearly doesn't differentiate South and Central American countries/people from each other.
houstonsimpleton - This is not the same thing as someone commenting about a British person eating French food because of the intent. Nobody would make a statement amount a British person eating French food because there is no general confusion between British and French cultures/people. Part of it is that they speak different languages. However, in this case Griese was not just saying that JPM was out getting something to eat. He specifically mentioned Mexican food, presumably because JPM is Colombian.
2. Even if Griese did differentiate between Colombian and Mexican cultures, it still would have been inappropriate to signal out JPM's ethnicity by saying he was out eating Colombian food.
skinny pigeon - This is not really the same thing as commenting about Sarkozy eating a crepe, because Caucasian Europeans aren't generally discriminated against in this country, as Latinos are (although I remember a hockey player getting into trouble a few years ago for calling a French Canadian player a "frog"). This would be more comparable to someone making a comment about an African American athlete going out for fried chicken.
Anyway, it was a dumb comment. He apologized. We should move on.
@SFS ... excellent post that will be lost on most.
@houstonsimpleton ... please spare us how you would feel IF you were Hispanic or on the receiving end of an ethnic slur. That's like saying "If someone chopped off my nose, I'm sure Bozo's red rubber ball would work just as well." It's easy to say, but until you've been there you can't know how you'd feel.
I thought Griese was inferring that Montoya, a non-Mexican, was tasting the cuisine of the weather girl on Univision.
Si si !
Ugh, that is one Griese taco...
i didn't think it was that offensive. even though the stereotype was wrong, it's not offensive. are you telling me mexicans don't like tacos? obviously griese erred in assuming JPM was mexican, but just because it's a stereotype doesn't mean it's offensive.
what makes this even worse is griese apologized twice before most of the public even heard about it.
nope, not good enough for everyone that didn't even hear it happen live. people wanted more. espn has to suspend or fine.
ridiculous, man. anyone who gets offended that easy should just not watch the news, tv, or read anything. the problem are those who get offended by crap like this.