The full quote from Blank was:
"The word 'never' is a very strong word. There's a lot of roadblocks to Michael coming back and even playing in the National Football League, Tony. Let's assume he's out for three seasons, 07, 08 and 09. If he doesn't watch himself and eats a lot of fried chicken and fries in prison, come out 215 pounds he's not going to be the same athlete he was."
The "fried chicken" reference has struck some as an unfortunate choice of words, along the lines of Fuzzy Zoeller's infamous comments, but I think Blank meant nothing at all by it. It struck me as an innocuous comment, with an intent no different than if he had said "ice cream."
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. of course we live in a world where every one has a stick up the booty so he will get blasted for it..thought police on parade
Posted at 11:53AM on Dec 11th 2007 by jon
2. Arthur Blank's in the South. We all eat fried chicken here. It's not a racial thing. It's a Southern thing!
Posted at 11:57AM on Dec 11th 2007 by Al H
3. What about watermelon? Can he eat that?
Posted at 12:13PM on Dec 11th 2007 by Gern Wormstead
4. Isn't it a little ignorant to automatically link fried chicken to racism? And if it's an innocuous comment, why is it newsworthy? Why stir something up that isn't there?
Posted at 12:29PM on Dec 11th 2007 by PopJocks
5. As long as he didn't call an African-American articulate, he should be fine.
Posted at 3:12PM on Dec 11th 2007 by Jojo2007
6. He could have said dog meat.
Posted at 3:30PM on Dec 11th 2007 by carmen
7. Here we go again. Can't wait to see Jesse and Al Sharpton come out and look for an apology. Hopefully people will see the comments for what they were....and not make it a racist issue. I am tired of everyone twisting things into a race thing. Thicken your skins!
Posted at 3:42PM on Dec 11th 2007 by scott maxson
8. Whatever Vick does, he better not get caught with the Fried Chicken and a gun in his car...he might have an accident and end up killing someone or something..that Fried Chicken has been linked to many causes of death after all..ok maybe that's a little dark:-)
Posted at 3:55PM on Dec 11th 2007 by CowboysRULE
9. I eat fried chicken and love it,but I haven't killed a dog lately. Does that make me a bigot?
Posted at 4:04PM on Dec 11th 2007 by m. subo
10. You know what Jesse and Al are hearing?
Ca-chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
They may as well be women.
Btw, anybody else feel that Home Depot really, really, really sucks these days. I used to love the place. Back, you know, when they had people who could actually help you.
Posted at 4:28PM on Dec 11th 2007 by Jojo2007
11. Forget a comment. Blank has shown sooooo much love 2 mike. Blank is a fried
chicken eater himself. It's part of the deep south diet. I'm black and all of my white friends eat more fried chicken than I do so let's not make this a racial thing. There are a lot more situations where race is a lot more applicable.
Posted at 4:43PM on Dec 11th 2007 by Gregory Bell
12. At least he didn't say pizza, all the fat, white folk would be whinin'
Posted at 4:51PM on Dec 11th 2007 by KGar
13. Much ado about nothing.
Posted at 7:15PM on Dec 11th 2007 by RustyShackleford
14. 215? by eating fried chicken?
if he comes out at 215 he's got a problem being underweight!
it's unbelievable any a**hole with money can be an "expert"!
Posted at 9:24PM on Dec 11th 2007 by jgrella
15. I didn't think much about it because it is the South. Fried chicken is everywhere. KFC, Bojangles, Popeyes, Chick fil A, plus mom and pop places everywhere. I'm white and loooooove the chicken down south.
Posted at 12:58AM on Dec 12th 2007 by Sportz Assassin
16. With all the support Blank has given Vick please don't make this some kind of racist crap. Blank should have endorsed Vick eating rat poison instead.
You make it sound like only Black's eat fried chicken; what an A S S H O L E. And Vick will have one big A-hole after eating d--k in prison
Posted at 11:52PM on Dec 12th 2007 by tedfio1
17. What kills me is that Pete Rose has gotten such a bad rap for betting on baseball. Compared to today's athelete, that's nothing. We have Bonds and Clemens and other baseball players doing illegal steroids, we have football "stars" who are weilding guns and committing Federal Crimes. We have basketball players jumping into the stands and beating fans. What else do we need? I believe that if players are convicted of a Federal Crime, they are no longer accepted back into ANY league. I'm tired to hearing how much money Vick will lose and how it's unfair. He committed a Federal Crime, he should NEVER play in the NFL again....PERIOD!!!
Posted at 12:28PM on Dec 14th 2007 by Keith
18. lemme shock you guys minds....Arthur Blanks IS black..hes what we in the black community call "Trying to Pass"
and oh yea I eat fried chicken too..not cuz im black but cuz its delicious
Posted at 12:25PM on Feb 29th 2008 by unclebigbad