This musical introduction has been around for most of our lives. It all begins with the drums playing at a fairly quick pace accompanied by images of fighter planes, aircraft carriers, and one Philadelphia Eagle running with the football. The song continues with a quick little guitar riff joined by more pictures of planes, wide receivers catching footballs, and cheerleaders motivating their teams. And then, there is a shot of one man in a cowboy attire. Hank Williams Junior is the man who boasts about his rowdy friends, subtly introduces the night's game, and yells one of the more popular quotes in the entire sport: "Are You Ready for Some Football!?" But now, after a twenty year run, "All My Rowdy Friends" will no longer be the introduction song for Monday Night Football on ESPN.
The song had been pulled by ESPN on October 3rd after Williams made some rather scathing comments regarding president Barack Obama. On top of the comments themselves, Williams' halfhearted apology not only suggested that he was not sorry for any of his comments, but rather that he seemed more angry that ESPN decided to stop using his song on air.
The reason that ESPN pulled the plug on Hank Williams and all of his rowdy friends was simple: ESPN had to protect its best interests moving forward and keeping someone as inflammatory as Williams would hurt the company name. And frankly it was the right decision to make. Williams "apologized" through his publicist and there is little doubt that not only is Williams not sorry for what he said, but also that there is nothing stopping him from saying something much worse. ESPN was right to draw the line at what Williams could and could not say because he may not have been an employee of the network, but they had such a close relationship that Williams' opinions made ESPN look bad.
Despite what has been said, this divorce did not ruin either ESPN or Williams' career. ESPN is still far and away the world wide leader in sports, and it's audience remains faithful to the network because there is no other serious competition. As for Williams, his musical career did not suffer to big of a blow with his song no longer being a staple for Monday Night Football. Williams had been voted entertainer of the year by the Country Music Association in 1987 and 1988, and was a superstar in the genre since the early 1980's. Did Williams' comments cost his some money for every time ESPN played the song? Sure, but Williams' had a target audience that would not be lost over some bad comments.
Who will replace Hank Williams Jr. as the introduction to Monday Night Football? That remains to be seen. However, there is no guarantee that any of Williams' replacements will be as rowdy or as ready for some football.
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