After getting the boot for comments he made about then-President Barack Obama in 2011, country music legend Hank Williams Jr. will return to Monday Night Football starting with the September 11 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings. ESPN said in a statement that it will bring back the “most iconic music video in sports television history” because of fan complaints about its six-year absence.
The famous MNF intro is a remake of Williams’ 1984 hit “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.” The football version aired before every MNF game for over twenty years from 1989 until 2011.
Williams’ theme song was removed after he compared then-House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) golf trip with President Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu golfing with Adolf Hitler. The Associated Press reports that ESPN is not concerned over potential backlash for Williams’ return.
Williams is the son of country music legend and Alabamian Hank Williams Sr. Williams Jr. moved to Alabama in the mid-1970s and recorded numerous albums in Muscle Shoals with other southern rock and country stars. According to his Facebook page, he currently resides in Montana.
The return of the MNF theme comes at a time when ESPN is under increased pressure from its owners and customers to alter its content. ESPN has come under fire from its audience for an increasing liberal bias that has shifted away from sports coverage and towards social justice topics. With subscribers leaving in droves, the company recently engaged in massive layoffs of over 100 hard-news employees.
