ESPN Has (Not So Subtly) Banned Some Of Hannah Storm's Wardrobe (UPDATE)
Hannah Storm's been playfully mocked here before due to her — some say “inappropriate” — SportsCenter outfits but apparently some of the Bristol fashion police agreed with Tony Kornheiser's opinion: Weep, Stormtroopers — the red go-go boots are gone.
Yes, according to a source, even though Mr. Kornheiser's comments about Hannah Storm's wardrobe choices were borderline cruel, some of Storm's bosses concur and have requested she not wear the red boots anymore. And this is not the first time she's been instructed not to wear a certain article of clothing. According to the source, there are two other items that ESPN has requested Hannah keep in her closet:
The Puffy Shirt: Yes, this wacky outfit, which caught the attention of Sports Pros(e) writer Kyle Koster due to its similarity to one featured in a popular Seinfeld sketch, was also not Norby — Norby, motherfucker! — approved.
The Daisy Duke Blouse: We can blame this shirt's retirement on Jessica Simpson or, most likely, Dashiell Bennett.
No word on if Kornheiser will be reprimanded for his comments, but considering he's got all the Dockers-wearing boys in middle management in agreement with him, he'll probably just have to apologize to her on-air or over the phone.
It's highly suggested that Storm take these requests lightly and have fun with it, but also put them to good use.
UPDATE: Norby speaks:
Hannah is a consummate professional and one of ESPN's most respected voices. The comments were totally inappropriate, which Tony recognized. He apologized to Hannah and addressed it on his radio show. We are in the process of reviewing the entire situation.
Norby Williamson, ESPN Executive Vice President, Production
And via The Big Lead, here's Kornheiser apologizing on his radio show this morning:
I apologize, unequivocally … I'm a sarcastic, subversive guy … I'm a troll, look at me. I have no right to insult what anybody looks like or what anybody wears. That, I think, should go without saying.
To which Storm responded: “Maybe you should take this …you have a following, maybe you should take this as food for thought.”
Send an email to A.J. Daulerio, the author of this post, at ajd@deadspin.com.
Payton versus Peyton …
New Orleans is a religious town. They have the most famous Fat Tuesday (Mardi gras) celebration in the world.
Mardi Gras begins now, and the city has a whole new set of saints to revere and venerate. St. Brees, St. Payton, St. Porter … and more.
Winning Super Bowl 44 in the 44th year of their franchise was a huge achievement for a team that was cobbled together by a quarterback whose career just four years ago was doubtful—what with that shoulder injury sustained in his last game as a Charger—and NFL castoffs (who wanted to go to a city which might not even have a franchise, a stadium, and whose population had been deported to just about every state in the union?).
President Obama, former Colts head coach Tony Dungy, television sports commentator Tony Kornheiser (“Colts have won every game they wanted to win) and just about everyone else had the Colts winning handily.
Allow me to rather immodestly point out that on a previous blog I fearlessly predicted with the clairvoyance of Old Testament seer, the Saints to win by 12.
Like those prophets of all, people laughed at me; mocked me; scorned me and thought I was crazy.
Actually, I was conservative. St. Brees (game MVP) and dem Saints went marching on to glory by 14.
Manning will be back in a Super Bowl. He will join the 11 other quarterbacks in NFL history who have won two or more Super Bowls.
This Super Bowl, however, will always be special, and there’s much that happened in that game that will become part of football lore—most notable the onside kick to open the second half, in a game where there were more completed passes than ever before, in a game in which St. Brees tied the record (Brady) for most completed passes (32).
And in case you’re dismissive about all this sports talk, remember that the apostle Paul was a huge sports fan. He’s always referring to the sports of his day: races. And he also talks about the conditioning an athlete must undergo to excel at the game. He talks about winners and losers.
He understood that an athletic contest is a metaphor for life. In games as in life it’s all about conditioning, training, discipline, taking risks and in the end, wearing the laurel crown.
What happens now in New Orleans may be the longest Mardi Gras on record, and it’s not likely that the party’s going to stop on Ash Wednesday.
Tony Kornheiser was one of the best humor writers in the whole country. He took his comedy and smarts to the airwaves for more money. So what.
During last night's game, ESPN's Tony Kornheiser uttered an apology, and no one seemed to know why. We were asked about it a few dozen times during the liveblog last night, and …
