Hank Williams Jr: How Long Should ESPN Keep Williams' MNF Intro on the Shelf?

Those who didn't bother paying attention to the news on Monday might have noticed that there was something missing from ESPN's Monday Night Football telecast.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, allow me to enlighten you.

The thing that was missing was Hank Williams Jr.'s famed intro song. You know, the one that asks you to confirm whether or not you are ready for the football ESPN is about to show you.

The reason it wasn't there is because Williams rubbed the ESPN brass the wrong way with some comments he made about President Barack Obama in an interview on FOX and Friends.

All you really need to know is that Williams compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Though extreme, he insisted that the juxtaposition made sense.

Regardless, ESPN didn't want to hear it, and they punished Williams by yanking his intro song from the broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Said ESPN in a statement:

"

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. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast.

"

In his own statement, Williams was less than apologetic. He said that he has "always respected" Obama, but he also insisted that he compared Obama to Hitler in order to make a point.

Whatever that point was, ESPN clearly didn't agree with it. They demonstrated as much by knocking Williams' intro song off of one MNF telecast, but the question now is whether or not it will be knocked from any more telecasts.

At the moment, that's a question that seems to have no answer. ESPN's initial statement only said that Williams' intro song was only going to be pulled from Monday night's telecast. They did not specify whether or not it has been pulled for good.

Because of that, one presumes that ESPN could just reinstall the intro in Week 5, most likely without making a big fuss over it. Perhaps they'll cross their fingers and hope that nobody notices.

However, I'm wondering why ESPN would be that quick to let Williams off the hook. They don't really need his song to convince people to come watch football on Monday night, of course, as it's not like there is football anywhere else on TV on Monday nights.

Besides, if the folks at ESPN really wanted to send a message that they disagree with Williams' politics (which are definitely extreme), ditching his song for the rest of the season would be a fine way for them to do so.

All of this being said, there are many members of the football-adoring public who were pretty annoyed that Williams' song did not introduce Monday Night Football. ESPN might decide it's best to cave to their will and move on.

Personally, I wouldn't mind not seeing or hearing Williams' intro ever again. It's tired, it's old and it's pretty annoying. My hope is that ESPN will take this as an opportunity to try something new.

Actually, that's not a bad idea.