When I posted the video of Johnny Miller calling Rocco Mediate “Tiger’s Pool Guy” I thought it was just a knock on Rocco and his non-athletic look. Apparently Italians took it as a personal insult towards their heritage and Miller has apologized….
Johnny Miller apologized Friday for comments that appeared to reflect negatively on the Italian heritage of Rocco Mediate, the popular runner-up to Tiger Woods in the United States Open.
During Sunday’s fourth round, Miller said that Mediate “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.” Later, while discussing the unlikely prospect that Mediate might win, he said that “guys with the name of Rocco don’t get on the trophy, do they?”
“I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful,” Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to “convey my affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage.”
The apology by Miller, NBC’s lead golf analyst, came after two Italian-American groups protested his remarks, with one of them demanding that NBC suspend him.
Are you kidding me? How could anyone take that as making fun of Italians??? I’m not one to tell people what they should be offended by, but there’s no way Miller was directing that to an entire group of people. Miller is no saint but getting on him about this just seems wrong to me. Is there some racist joke involving Italians as pool boys that I’m not aware of? Actually I don’t want to know the answer to that.
Oh well, he apologized and it’s over now (hopefully).
Miller Is Sorry for Comments About Mediate (NY Times)
Italian Americans Everywhere, Johnny Miller Is Sorry for Making Fun of Your Heritage (Fanhouse)
