Lou Holtz apologizes for comparing Rich Rodriguez to Hitler

Michigan

Lou Holtz, the former college football coach turned ESPN analyst, apologized to Michigan fans Saturday during halftime of the Clemson-Georgia Tech game on the network.

Various reports said Holtz made an unsavory comparison between Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and Hitler during "College Football Live" Friday night on ESPN.

According to Deadspin.com, the context of the conversation was about Rodriguez's not-so-great start at Michigan -- the Wolverines were 2-4 at the time preparing to face No. 3 Penn State on Saturday -- and Holtz, in his analysis of the situation said: "Ya know, Hitler was a great leader, too."

Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said Saturday upon arriving at Beaver Stadium that he had been told of the reference and immediately contacted a well-placed official at ESPN.

"I addressed it," Martin said.

Holtz then made his apology at halftime of the game broadcast.

"Last night while trying to make a point about leadership, I made an unfortunate reference," Holtz said, according to an ESPN transcript of his comments. "It was a mistake, and I sincerely apologize. At the time, I tried to clarify my remarks. I'm not sure I adequately did so. I appreciate your understanding."

Rodriguez said after the game he had not heard about Holtz's remark. When it was explained to him, he struggled for a reaction.

"What is the correlation there?" Rodriguez said. "I don't know where his correlation is."

There is precedent at ESPN for handling situations like this. Earlier this summer, ESPN.com columnist Jemele Hill was suspended after writing in an NBA-related column that rooting "for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim."

ajmoeller81

That's such an idiotic statement on so many levels. I can't understand half the words that come out of this guy's mouth these days anyways. ESPN needs to institute a mandatory retirement age as well as a mandatory dumb statement retirement.

goose3

Lou's an idiot.

stevek

<<< "Ya know, Hitler was a great leader, too." >>>

Not only is the analogy absurd, but the statement pathetic. Does Holtz believe that being a "great leader" means turning your country into smoldering ruins and being responsible for killing eight million German citizens, as well as the other international atrocities and tens of millions of others murdered by the Nazis.

rube26105

rich rod sucks,glad he left,threw the pitt game with hand injury to pat white,qb,and kept him out whole game,injury was to wrong hand , not his throwing hand, at least he has to pay wvu all the millions back- he abandoned us, he knows all too well not to show his face back in morgantown though
we suck this year, too many new guys,we might as well just default all the games here at wvu

JackWESQ

I actually saw Holtz make the comment. Extremely not appropriate in my opinion. What's really funny is that the person who was "commentating" with Holtz (sitting to Holtz' right, e.g. on the left side of the screen), apparently heard to the comment, paused (probably thinking what the heck did Holtz just say) and moved on saying something else about Michigan.

/s/ JackWESQ

stevek

And even if Holtz did use the comment in a "sarcastic" sort of way, it is still stupid to compare almost anybody to Hitler as in my view it diminishes the horror of what he did. The only comparisons to Hitler should be other mass murderers such as Joseph Stalin and Idi Amin, and perhaps wanabe Hitlers such as Saddam Hussein.

yawie99

I was once an ardent supporter of the First Amendment, but it's really time for a caveat banning sports-as-war and politics-as-sport metaphors.

JackWESQ

Dear yawie99,

I tend to agree. I think Marv Levy said it best when he said that "World War II was a must win."

/s/ JackWESQ

yawie99

Levy's awesome. I wish he could've won just one of those Super Bowls, but I'm sure he has a healthy perspective on the four straight L's.

dirtmonkey

<< <i>rich rod sucks,glad he left,threw the pitt game with hand injury to pat white,qb,and kept him out whole game,injury was to wrong hand , not his throwing hand, at least he has to pay wvu all the millions back- he abandoned us, he knows all too well not to show his face back in morgantown though
we suck this year, too many new guys,we might as well just default all the games here at wvu >>



Maybe he left because of nutjobs like... well, you C'mon, why would he lose the game intentionally? Michigan hadn't even talked to him then. At that point, it was Les or bust. WV fans have the right to be disappointed because they lost a coach that turned them into contenders, but the sh/t some pulled and continue to do just shows their own stupidity.

On the other side, Holtz has always been a tool. That lisping POS annoys the he// out of me. I always expect to see him closing the show by saying "Bdat Bdat Bdat... Dat's all Folks".

rube26105

it dont have anythingto do with michigan, all about a certain cheerleader he was caught with before the pitt game come to my mind pretty quick,and his wife packed his stuff for him and said were movin

lawnmowerman

I didn't know Hitler played college football??


You learn something new everyday on these forums

Mickey71

The comment made no sense at all. The comment made about as much sense as saying Hitler's favorite singer was Elvis. I think Lou has lost his mind. It's been a bad couple of weeks for guys named Lou in sports.
Mickey71