Thursday, March 27th, 2008
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Reader Danny Bryant pointed us to a news story on GetReligion.org about how University of Texas Men’s Head Basketball Coach Rick Barnes has changed his cussin’ ways.
In a story originally reported on statesmen.com, Kirk Bohls tells of Rick Barnes’ recent vocabulary adjustments, which have him breaking huddles by saying things like, “let’s go out and kick butt!”
Not only has he cleaned up his speech, Barnes has cleaned up his iPod as well. In addition to sermons from his own pastor, Matt Carter, Barnes has been taking in wisdom from some more notable voices:
The coach also takes part with his wife Candy’s daily devotionals and reads from books she has given him, such as Billy Graham’s “The Holy Spirit” and Minneapolis preacher John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life.”
“The journey’s real important,” one Barnes confidante said. “Having self-control is never a bad thing.”
Barnes, who’s Longhorns host play Stanford on Friday night in Houston for a spot in the Elite Eight, has changed his diet and fitness regimen as well. He even swears by Metamucil, pushing it on reporters every chance he gets according to the article.
(Did you see what I did there with the word ’swear’? Clever, no?)
Tags: cussing, Rick Barnes
Posted in college sports, morality | 6 Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Perhaps you’ve seen the videos of ESPN’s Chris Berman that have been all over the internet for the past week? They all seem to be about 5-7 years old, and feature Berman off camera (or so he thought) using language that your pastor would not use from the pulpit.
I don’t want you to get in trouble searching for them all over the scary internets, so here they are if you’re interested. Just so you know, clips 1,3, and 4 contain cussing and clip 4 contains Chris taking God’s name in vain a few times (7, actually). If you’d rather not hear any of that, skip over the links.
First Dana Jacobson and now this. Apparently, the Christian Defense Coalition has had enough.
“The Christian Defense Coalition will be calling on ESPN to take three positive steps toward building a culture of religious tolerance in their workplace:
*Discipline or terminate any employee that uses religiously intolerant and hateful language such as “Goddamn” or the negative use of “Jesus Christ” in the workplace.
*Sponsor a workplace seminar and dialogue on religious tolerance and discrimination in the workplace. ESPN has held similar seminars on race and gender but never on religion.
*Host a discussion on one of their programs featuring the topic of the offensive use of “Goddamn” and “Jesus Christ” within the sports world.
It is the goal of the Christian Defense Coalition to help ESPN realize the negative use of “Jesus Christ” and “Goddamn” in the workplace is as offense and hateful as using the term “nigger” in the workplace.
The Coalition will be demonstrating today at high noon in front of ESPN (across the street from the McDonald’s) in hopes that “…ESPN will take a positive first step toward ending workplace religious intolerance by implementing our three recommendations. ”
These videos were obviously recorded and saved without anyone knowing about it. Suddenly they are being put on the internet 7 years later, probably because whoever published them has since moved on from ESPN.
What do you think? Does Berman, at the very least, owe folks an apology for the language he used? Should ESPN take action against him? Would you be ok with comments you made 7 years ago in private showing up on YouTube? Is picketing ESPN a good idea?
It’s true that Berman wasn’t on the air when he said all this, but he was at work, and as such, ESPN should have the right to take action against him if they wanted to. Does anyone know what the statute of limitations are on cussing?
Tags: Chris Berman, cussing, ESPN
Posted in Sports Media | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
I was surprised earlier this afternoon to see that ESPN.com was actually running the Dana Jacobson story on their front page links (although i see that now, 8 hours later, it is nowhere to be found). While the story had received a good bit of attention on the sports blog circuit, it’s the type of thing that usually gets swept under the rug over at the four letter.
If you’re not familiar with the details, ESPN personality Dana Jacobson, known mostly for her journalist role on ESPN2’s “First Take” (formerly “Cold Pizza”), got a little out of hand at the Mike & Mike Celebrity Roast last week in Atlantic City. Allegedly, Dana was beyond inebriated at the event. So wasted, in fact, that she made some not-so-nice comments about Notre Dame and a certain member of the trinity. As was repored by a tipster at Deadspin.com, this was the gist of what she said:
“F— Notre dame” … “F— touchdown Jesus” … “F— Jesus.”
ESPN reported today that it has suspended Jacobson for a week. Jacobson, as you might expect, has issued an apology to the Catholic League:
“I am sorry. My remarks about Notre Dame were foolish and insensitive. I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words. I also deeply regret the embarrassment I’ve caused ESPN and Mike and Mike. My actions at the roast were inappropriate and in no way represent who I am. I won’t make excuses for my behavior, but I do hope I can be forgiven for such a poor lack of judgment.”
There are so many lessons to be learned from this, but the most important one is probably this: Avoid all things Mike & Mike related. (which, i know, is getting tougher and tougher these days)
As for Jacobson, we’re all about second chances here at PFB, though we’re still not sure why someone, no matter how drunk, would go the “F Jesus” route. I’m pretty sure Jesus will forgive her, if she’s interested in asking Him (or anyone else other than the Catholic League), so I’m not going to walk around pretending to be offended by the comment. Clearly it was an asinine thing to say, and she’ll be paying for it professionally for quite some time.
The wackiest thing about this whole ordeal, has got to be the poll on WorldNetDaily.com (the poll appears to change daily, and may no longer be active when you’re reading this). I mean, seriously, 10 possible answers?? What is this, the U.S. Census? And look at the penultimate option!
Here’s the results as of 10:15pm EST, on Wednesday night!
80% of 7,000 people think she should be fired or she is going to hell if she doesn’t repent for her comments. wow.
Tough crowd? or people telling it like it is? If you’ve got an opinion, you know where to share it…
Tags: blasphemy, cussing, Dana Jacobson, drunkenness, ESPN
Posted in Sports Media | 9 Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
The Kansas City Star is reporting that FOX has booked Kansas City Chiefs coach Herm Edwards to be on their show, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.” Why is this news? Because up until now, Edwards has refused to go on the show because of a certain word that the show uses in its title.
Edwards said, “this show is not the ‘best’ sports show on tv”, when asked why he refused to appear, “so for me to appear on the show for ten minutes would be akin to me lying for 10 straight minutes. And I don’t lie!”
No, we joke. (I made that last paragraph up…and don’t worry, Herm doesn’t have the internet anyway.)
Obviously the word that Edwards had a problem with was ‘damn’, and the only reason he is going to appear on the show on October 30th is because FOX has agreed to change the name of the show to “The Best Darn Sports Show Period” for one day only.
“We were willing to do anything to get Herm on the show, including renaming it,” said the show’s host, Chris Rose. “Herm is such a good interview and we’ve been wanting to get him on so long. We can’t wait.”
As an interesting aside, I sort of predicted something like this in a piece I wrote for Burnside earlier this year. That story, Survey Says, featured the following phony survey Q&A:
I asked 100 Christian sports fans the following question, “When talking about the FOX Sports TV Show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, what do you refer to the show as?”
71% said they had never heard of such a show.
19% said that they referred to the show as ‘The Best Darn Sports Show Period’, because as one respondent put it “you avoid the cuss yet it still rolls off the tongue like Goliath’s head down Mt. Sinai.”
8% of everyone asked told me I should wash my mouth out with soap.
2% said they used the actual name, “The Best Damn Sports Show Period”, although most of these folks admit to lowering their voice somewhere between the words ‘best’ and ‘sports’.
While many sports sites are asking “Would your change your show’s name to have Herm Edward’s on?”, I’m wondering the opposite. So i pose this question:
Would you as a Christian (if you are one), go on the show with it’s current name? (and if not, would their temporary name change convince you to do it?)
Also, if you’re not a Christian, what do you think of Herm’s stance on this? Noble, ridiculous, or somewhere in between?
I’m not looking for moral absolutes here, just your own infallible opinions 
(h/t: AwfulAnnouncing.com)
Tags: Best Darn Sports Show, cussing, Herm Edwards
Posted in NFL, morality | No Comments »
