Bob Griese Likes Stereotyping!

If you have not seen this video by now or at the very least heard about this story, then I'm pretty sure you have been living under a rock the past few days. I bring this up now for the actual video and itself and my opinion of it, and because someone completely unrelated to sports said something just like Griese did. Anyway, here is the video in case you have not seen it.



"Where is Juan Pablo Montoya?" - Spielman
"Is he out having a taco?" - Griese

Good times!

Bob Griese did apologize twice for this remark, once at the end of the football game, the other later in the afternoon before the primetime games.

There are some people out there calling for Griese's firing and/or suspension. I will make my view right here and now clear and perfectly stated with no uncertain terms. That is complete, and utter bullshit. The worse part about what he said is that Montoya is Columbian, not Mexican.

Other than that he made a bad stereotypical joke, his first offense from what we know, and that's that. If he was suspended or fired, then to avoid a double standard, for every bad slightly stereotypical joke that an announcer made, they would have to be treated at the same. And if this happened, frankly, there would be no one left in the business. He apologized twice on the air and this belongs in the exact same category as Tony Kornheiser's laundry joke from 2 years ago, the incident most related to this kind. Bad Mexican stereotype over ESPN's airwaves. Was he fired? Was he suspended? The answer: no.

It was a bad joke, yes, and something worthy of an apology, yes. It's not like Griese has a prior record of saying things like that, it's just one of those instances where you say something you don't mean to say or it just comes out the wrong way. Sometimes people say things that they regret as soon as they say it and they know it was bad right when they say it. I've done it 1,000 times in my life and will probably do it 10,000 more times before I am laid to rest. Griese apologized, and that should be the end of the story. It's not like he said the "s" word that demeans Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Just a stereotype based on food. He apologized twice. That's enough for me and I am slightly disheartened that some people that are not even of Mexican decent have taken this thing way too far.

Now the reason I bring this up, my professor today was showing us how to use Windows Movie Maker and he was demonstrating by using pictures from his recent trip to Mexico. He finished things off my adding some Mexican music and after we viewed his demo right as class was over, he made the off the cuff remark of "all of a sudden I'm in the mood for a taco." Everyone laughed, I don't think anyone was offended, and that was that. Regardless it made me think of Griese and how people have unrightfully called for his firing or suspension over something like this.

And I'll just say this, you better learn to be angry about this forever or completely forget about it because Griese will not be suspended and he damn sure won't be fired. You got your apology, now move on with your life.

Update: Oof. It appears as if I have been slightly misguised. Bob Griese has been suspended.......(are you ready for this whopper? I'm about to be shown the error of my horribly misguide ways; heck for this misguidance, you'll probably think I deserve to be suspended from blogging) for 1 WHOLE GAME!. That's it. Personally, I think that that's too much, but with a lot of unwarranted backlash toward the comment, I guess I can see why ESPN would make such a move. But like I said above, not only did Griese apologize twice, but now he has been suspended for 1 game. If any one is still angry over this, then I'm sorry, but you need to settle down and think about how you would feel if you were in the booth and you let something like that slip. I highly doubt you'll feel that it is justified for you to be fired over one slip of the tongue that to some was probably innocuous.

Griese suspended 1 game for Montoya remark (Philly.com)