Monday Night Football may sound different tonight.
ESPN opted to pull its classic opening theme song after Hank Williams Jr.—whose "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" has been asking viewers if they're ready for some football for 22 years—compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in an interview on Fox News.
"While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football," the network said in a statement. "We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast."
Wow, so what exactly did Williams say?!
In a sit-down via satellite with Fox & Friends this morning, Williams said, "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," in reference to Obama's golf outings with conservative House Speaker John Boehner.
"They're the enemy! Obama, Biden...the three stooges!" Williams shouted as the confused-looking trio of Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade asked him to please explain his analogy.
"That's only two," Doocy noted concernedly.
There's no word yet on whether MNF will include Williams' Emmy-winning opener next week, or if he's locked himself out of the NFL for good.
UPDATE: Williams responded with this statement:
"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme—but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me—how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President.
"Every time the media brings up the Tea Party it's painted as racist and extremists—but there's never a backlash—no outrage to those comparisons...Working class people are hurting—and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job —it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change."
(Originally published Oct. 3, 2011, at 5:05 p.m. PT)