Hitler Had A Double Standard Too ...

So, not too long ago ESPN.com columnist Jemele Hill made a rather unfortunate reference to Hitler in one of her online columns. The next day she issued an apology, but that just wasn’t enough for one of the most politically correct organizations in America. Hill was suspended without pay. I can’t find the original article because ESPN went back and edited it when some people got their panties in a wad over it.

For the record her Hitler reference was a shot at Boston Celtics fans and THEY are the people who got all hot and bothered over the Hitler reference.

Anyway, ESPN made it perfectly clear that there will be no Hitler references at all!

This was pretty consistent with ESPN’s previous suspensions for politically incorrect things said and written.

So, while I disagreed with ESPN at the time, I at least acknowledged that they were being consistent in their overreactions.

Until now.

Last weekend on one of their college football previews Lou Holtz directly compared Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez to Hitler. When someone mentioned that Rodriguez was a great leader, Holtz responded “You know, Hitler was considered a great leader too.”

So when I heard Holtz say this I thought to myself "Uh-Oh! Lou's gonna get a week off." But, that didn't happen. In fact, all Lou had to do was show up on ESPN's college football show on Saturday and issue some half-assed non-apology and that was it.

Nothing else.

So, to summarize:

A young black female makes an unfortunate and uncalled for comparison of Boston Celtics fans to Hitler and there is a firestorm and she ends up getting suspended without pay for a few days.

And old, kooky white former overrated college football coach makes an unfortunate and uncalled for comparison of Michigan's football coach to Hitler and once again, as has happened throughout his coaching career everyone says "Ahh ... just apologize and it's okay. Everyone knows Lou has a good heart and he didn't mean anything bad by it."

Hmm ...

Now I know that some of you are going to say that there is a difference between writing a column that can be reread and edited and thought about before posting and Holtz spontaneous utterance while on live TV. This is true. But, the problem with that is that ESPN has never allowed any such differences when dealing with other incidents of political incorrectness. They have suspended play-by-play guys, and color commentators and radio people on numerous occasions for just blurting out things like "That's kinda gay, isnt' it?" just as one example that I can remember off the top of my head. So that doesn't explain it.

What does explain the double standard here is that ESPN just treats their popular "on air" talent differently. Their so-called "zero tolerance" policy is actually applied just any damn way management wants to.

Which would be fine with me if they would just admit it and stop being so God-Damned pious when they suspend somebody for saying something that resulted in some crybabies throwing a hissy fit.

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For the record I sat down with the imginary staff of Cynical_Bastard last night, and we agreed that this blog has no Hitler reference policy. Not only are Hitler references tolerated here, they are encouraged.

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So here are the results of this week's Fantasy Football action.



And here are the updated standings...


As you can see the Deatheaters kicked some Bagwine ass this week and are still hanging in there. We remain one game out of the playoffs and are still fighting hard.

Of course, two weeks ago the Deatheaters got their asses handed to them by SinCityNE's team. Mostly because of Tony Romo's big game. Of course, Romo got hurt in that game, and while it's entirely possible that this blog will classlessly celebrate the injury of a celebrity quarterback who is dating a hottie, we don't actively root for injuries to players on the opposing teams. You know, Hitler used to classlessly celebrate injuries to opposing players too.

The only thing I'll say about Romo's injury is, IF he's going to get hurt anyway, the least he could do is get hurt on the FIRST play of the game, rather than the last. Is that too much to ask?

Also, if I recall correctly some people weren't all that happy with my choice of redhead cheerleader a couple of weeks ago. Well too bad. I like her so she's staying. But, I did decide that instead of just dropping and adding cheerleaders each week, maybe I should add a group of them this week.

So here are my new cheerleaders ...


And, who says we can’t have a second redhead on the team? Well, here ya go…





Aaaaaand our player of the week is Calvin Johnson...


Cal only caught two passes this week, but one of them was a NINETY-SIX YARD TD pass! That’s 17.6 points on one play. Can’t really ask for more than that, can I?