An Atlanta sports radio host was fired Friday after drawing a parallel between coach firings by the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons and atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
Stan Norfleet, a part-time host that filled in on 92.9 The Game, was working an overnight show on New Year’s Eve, which fell on the Monday after the NFL’s Week 17. Known as “Black Monday” around the league, coaches are usually fired en masse following the final week of the regular season. The Falcons retained head coach Dan Quinn, but parted ways with three coordinators.
“Dan Quinn, firing all three coordinators. What does this mean? It’s simple … I’m going to use an analogy here, but let’s not be so serious,” Norfleet said. “With the concentration camps … the Nazis would put folks in a container, and they would slowly suck the oxygen out of the container. And what they found, it got so hot in there, and the pressure was so intense in there; that when they opened up the containers, they found, there was almost a pyramid of bodies trying to get to the top, to get the last breath of oxygen … before, obviously, the fatal outcome. Now, I know that’s gruesome, I don’t mean it that way. Y’all know I just think differently. That’s what Dan Quinn did today. Dan Quinn knows … there are no more excuses. These are the casualties that come along with the nasty side of the National Football League.”
According to 11Alive, Atlanta’s NBC affiliate TV station, Norfleet’s comments led to his firing by The Game’s parent company Entercom.
“We just learned of comments made earlier this week by a part-time, fill-in host,” read a statement from 92.9 The Game through AJC.com. “These comments are abhorrent, repulsive and insensitive. We have terminated our relationship with him. He will no longer appear on the station. We sincerely apologize to the Falcons organization, Coach Quinn, our listeners and our community.”
Falcons President and CEO Rich McKay released a statement through local media, concurring with Entercom’s decision to part ways with Norfleet.
“We were just made aware of the comments made by 92.9 host Stan Norfleet earlier this week,” McKay wrote. “The comments are totally unacceptable, not in line with our core values and show a complete disregard for the gravity of human tragedy he sought to use in his analogy. We fully support the station’s decision to terminate him.”
92.9 The Game is the radio partner of the Atlanta Falcons and Falcons games are broadcast live on the radio channel. The audio of Norfleet’s comments have been removed from 92.9 The Game’s website.
Norfleet took to Twitter with an apology regretting his use of an “inappropriate analogy to depict the ultra-competitive nature of pro football.”
— Stan M. Norfleet (@stansportsman) January 5, 2019
