Joy Behar walked back a joke she made about a gay football player.
The TV personality asked viewers to “make believe” she never made an anal sex joke about Carl Nassib becoming the first active player in the National Football League to come out as gay on Monday.
“By the way, that inappropriate joke I made for daytime television? Scratch it. Make believe I never said it,” Behar instructed viewers during Tuesday’s broadcast of The View on ABC.
RAIDERS PLAYER BECOMES FIRST ACTIVE NFL ATHLETE TO COME OUT AS GAY
Earlier in the program, Behar made a joke about Nassib’s sexuality, with an apparent reference to anal sex.
“After they said ‘penetration in the end zone,’ they lose me,” she said when explaining her lack of knowledge of the sport.
All of Behar’s co-panelists except Meghan McCain laughed at the joke.
Joy Behar tries to walk it back at the end of the segment.
By the way, that inappropriate joke I made for daytime television, scratch it. Make believe I never said it.” pic.twitter.com/z4klo7CXBc
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 22, 2021
Nassib, a 28-year-old defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, said in an Instagram video on Monday that he finally felt “comfortable enough” to share his sexual identity with the public. Other NFL players have come out as gay or bisexual in the past but not while actively playing for the professional football league.
Nassib, who has been with the Raiders since 2020, also pledged to donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit group providing suicide prevention services to young LGBTQ people.
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Behar has attracted scrutiny for controversial statements in the past, including when she compared former President Donald Trump to a “dictator” and criticized GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who is black, for his stance on racial issues.
“Now, Tim Scott, he does not seem to understand — and a lot of them don’t seem to understand the difference between a racist country and a systemic — systemic racism,” The View co-host said in April. “They don’t seem to get the difference. Maybe it’s not a racist country. Maybe Americans, the majority, are not racist. But we live in a country with systemic racism.”
