*Bob Lamey, the radio play-by-play announcer for the Indianapolis Colts for over 30 years, suddenly announced his retirement on Sunday after he reportedly used the N-word while telling a story to a black colleague.
According to 13 WTHR, the colleague in question said Lamey used the slur off-air last Tuesday, while telling her a story from his days working at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was describing an interview with an unnamed person when Lamey told his colleague that this person was asked if any racers were holding back their speed during qualifications, to which the person replied, “There aren’t any n**gers in this race.”
Lamey’s colleague told him that it wasn’t appropriate for him to use that word in front of her. She told WTHR that Lamey immediately tried to apologize and prevent her from telling anyone about it:
He thought it was OK to use that type of language at work. He was like, ‘Oh I’m so so sorry. I’m so sorry if you’re offended by this. I didn’t mean to offend anyone’ and I was like ‘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,” the radio employee said. “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.
The next day, the employee told Emmis Communications’ HR department about the incident. Four days later, Lamey announced his retirement.
Below, Lamey’s attorney’s statement acknowledging that he had used an “inappropriate word.”
Former #Colts radio voice Bob Lamey has released a statement tonight in response to the @WTHRcom story. Acknowledges that he used “an inappropriate word.” pic.twitter.com/sFlCDFrvFc
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) August 22, 2018
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