Poor old Terry Bradshaw, the nemesis of my beloved Cowboys back in the 70s, has fallen afoul of the Wokester mob.

When a Slip Becomes a Sin: Bradshaw and the Outrage Machine
After watching the clip of Terry Bradshaw’s fumbling of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s name, I fully expected a chuckle or two from football fans who know Bradshaw has been screwing up names for years.

Michael Strahan corrected him on the air, and Bradshaw moved on.

Anybody with a heart saw it as what it was: a mistake made by a 77-year-old man who has taken enough hits from his playing days to rattle any sets of wires upstairs.

Then, as if on cue, the outrage crowd grabbed the wheel and floored it, filling the platforms with demands for Bradshaw’s retirement, treating his stumble as a coded message about race, as if a bad syllable reveals hateful intent. Critics jumped at the chance to drag a man who gave his body to football, allowing the story to grow faster than the moment deserved.

People talking about Bradshaw now say he’s careless, out of touch, and that the mispronunciation had a hidden meaning.

He was treated like a villain by people who never cared for football analysis; they want the network to throw a 77-year-old man into the nearest ditch over a flub that any broadcaster (or a particular writer who can spell anomaly so much better than I can pronounce it) can make on any day. Hell, even younger analysts trip over names, but they receive grace, while Bradshaw gets a rope.

All this anger isn’t about the name; it’s about the idea that older white men owe perfection when everyone else is allowed to mispeak and get a second, or third, look.

This cultural shift should worry anybody who values fair judgment.

Moreover, it should infuriate anybody with half a lick of sense.

We all know by now what it will take to put an end to this thuggish dumbassery. Unfortunately we’re unwilling to go there as of yet, thus will be putting up with more and more of it as time goes racing by—until some intrepid soul finally grows himself a pair and says, “ENOUGH already!” And, y’know, by-God means it, too.