Bob Griese’s Taco Hell Suspended From ESPN for one week

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ESPN announced today that it has suspended Bob Griese for one week due to the backlash from his ”Taco Eater” quip this past Saturday, while making an off-hand joke about the whereabouts of Juan Pablo Montoya during the telecast of a college football game he was announcing.

ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

Juan Pablo Montoya , when asked about his feelings on the joke, stated Sunday that …”he did not care about it one way or the other”.., and further stated…”he’d never heard of Griese”…

 Some of my Colombian friends have told me that they do not take it as an insult, just ignorance, because they do not even eat Tacos in Colombia.

I am very impressed by this, and I have to go with what they think is appropriate, but, I know that what is behind that is somewhat insulting.

I grew up in a border town in Southern California, and I remember the first time I met a Puerto Rican kid that had moved out from New York city.

We immediately nicknamed him ”New York”, and he was wicked on the basketball court, because he had crazy drives, passing, and crossover skills, and we had never seen someone play like that.

At that time, most of the kids I grew up with were heavily Mexican American, so we thought ”New York Puerto Ricans” were Mexican just because they were Latino. The parents of ”New York” after hearing us refer to him as Mexican, quickly corrected us, and did a lot to educate all of us about Puerto Rico, as well as several other Central and South American culture.

It is embarrassing to have been that ignorant, but at least we were children then, we were not even teenagers yet.

Now we all know, and can pass on the correct information. That was the 70’s,which was a long time ago, so I can only take a joke like that, from someone older than me, who should know better, as nothing but stupidity, or he may have some deep seeded racist tendencies.

I feel that any joke about someone’s race, religion, creed, and color, is not funny, unless you feel insults are funny, in which case you should be prepared to deal with the consequences.

There are always consequences, and it is not about what you feel or do not feel about the joke, it’s always about how it would be perceived in common, polite society, which still exist, no matter how much the neocon Republican terrorist would like it to disappear.

For the record, in Colombia one of the popular foods is an Arepa, a sort of cornmeal pancake.

ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz says Griese  “understands the comment was inappropriate.”

For more on the Griese Taco story, click on the link below to a report on the AP:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j0UZABjgotaBUAWLNF4NLIPKExCAD9BJGDF00

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