Veteran CBS basketball announcer Billy Packer has been criticized for comments he made last week in an interview with Charlie Rose.  In the interview Packer and Rose were talking about the Final Four in Atlanta and Rose told Packer that he could hop on a plane and be in Atlanta to serve as a runner.  Packer responded by saying “You always fag out on that one for me, you know. You always say, ‘Oh, yes, I’m going to be the runner,’ then you never show up.”

Well you can imagine the firestorm Packer has been caught up in for using the word “fag”.  But nobody bothered to ask Packer what he meant.  In this case he meant that Rose was lazy.  After all the definition of fagged is, extremely tired, bleary, drained exhausted, fatigued and so on. 

So Packer didn’t mean it as a racial slur and it wouldn’t have made any sense in the context of what he and Rose were discussing.  Packer to his credit is defiant and told the Philadelphia Inquirer that “I can assure you I will use that phrase again and I won’t think twice about it.”  Bravo Billy!

Thanks goodness Packer didn’t give in to the politically correct thought police that is so pervasive in the media.  He has given hope to those that fear retribution for speaking their mind and if CBS is smart they will just let this go and not try to suspend or penalize one of the best basketball analysts in the country.

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