While at work, Bob Lamey, an NFL Indianapolis Colts radio announcer, told a story about an auto-racing analyst using the N-word 30 years ago. But Lamey decided to use the racial slur in his storytelling, despite whoever may have been in the room. A Black woman, present and offended, told Emmis Communications management about the incident.
The unnamed employee said Lamey asked if the microphones were off first, and then repeated what he claimed Derek Daly had said at the track.
The woman said she let Lamey know how she felt:
“I’m Black and I wouldn’t ever say that word and sort of just told him how it hurt me and how I don’t think he should say it ever, even if he’s telling a story,” said the radio employee who didn’t want to be identified, to News 13 WHTR Indianapolis.
“Then, once he saw my face, and realized he had messed up, he had started really like profusely apologizing, saying: ‘Please don’t tell anybody.’
“When I left, he said it again, ‘Please don’t tell anybody. Don’t mention this to anyone’. I think he was apologizing so much because he knows it’s wrong and he knows that people lose their jobs for that.”
Just this past Sunday, the Colts were praising Lamey during his “retirement” celebration. Colts owner Jim Irsay released this statement:
“Bob Lamey is a legend and icon, and his name is synonymous with Indianapolis Colts football. With his historic calls, familiar sayings and passion for football, he became part of the fabric of this entire community.
“No one has been more ‘Indianapolis’ than Bob Lamey. Even more so, he was very much a part of our team family, and he’s as dear to us as anyone who has ever worn the Horseshoe.”
After news leaked on Wednesday, about the N-word incident, the Colts changed their tune:
“In regards to Bob Lamey … first and foremost, the Colts deplore and do not tolerate the use of any racial slur — in any context,” Colts chief operating officer Pete Ward wrote in an email.
“Bob has had a long and storied history in our community, but he made a serious mistake. The Colts are deeply disappointed the incident took place and offer our sincerest regrets to all who were impacted by Bob’s lapse in judgment.”
The Colts statement also said that Lamey acknowledged his offense, apologized and immediately resigned. He had been an announcer for 31 seasons, and had a career in radio since the 1970s.
Other sports broadcasters have come under fire for racist comments recently, including Oklahoma City Thunder play-by-play announcer Brian Davis, who was suspended in April for one game after he said guard Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind” during a broadcast.
Daly, who Lamey’s story was originally about, has since lost his job at WISH-TV in Indianapolis. He protests Lamey’s account, but says he has used the N-word before.
He responded in a statement explaining that when he came to the U.S. from Ireland, where he reports they use the N-word as a reference to a ‘scapegoat’, he learned after using it in America that it meant something differently.
