Fresh off his ESPN double secret probation for mocking Hannah Storm’s 1960s-inspired go-go outfits, Tony Kornheiser is at it again; letting his mouth lead him where he probably shouldn’t go. I’m sure he was trying to be humorous in a Walter Matthau, Grumpy Old Men kind of way, but when he said on his Washington D.C. radio show on Wednesday of cyclists: “When three or four of these people start riding abreast, I swear to you, it’s all you can do to not run them down! Like Wile E. Coyote! Run ‘em over! Get the hell out of my way!”, some people took it the wrong way. Like, for one, Lance Armstrong. From his Twitter account:
Listening to Tony Kornheiser’s comments/rant on ESPN radio re: cyclists. Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot.
Here are Kornheiser’s comments.
Kornheiser’s rant stemmed from a report that D.C. would soon be expanding its network of dedicated bicycle-only lanes, including the stretch of Pennsylvania Ave. from the White House to the Capitol, which will be for bikes only. Kornhesier:
“Someone’s going to hate me for this, but am I wrong? They don’t share the road, they dominate the road and dare you to run them down. So you just kind of tap them. I’m not saying you kill them, just tap them.”
“The last time I looked, the road was made for automobiles. It’s as if we are going to be dominated, as if this were Beijing, by hundreds of thousands of bicyclists.”
“You see them (cyclists) with their little water bottles and shiny shorts, the same disgusting poseurs who in the middle of a snowstorm are out on the street cross country skiing.”
Wow. Armstrong again, on Twitter:
Tony Kornheiser on cyclists on the road, “run ‘em down”. Really? Big mistake, Tony.
We’ll see how big a mistake, as cyclists — whose number are legion and are very vocal — wind themselves up over this in the days to come. I wouldn’t doubt that there are many more Lance Armstrong fans out there than Tony Kornhesier fans, so this indeed could come back to bite him. Although his latest punishment came for comments made on Pardon The Interruption, not on his ESPN radio show.
What prompted the diatribe? Hard to say; but Kornheiser impresses me as the type who, as a kid, would ride a battered Schwinn with giant fenders and a big basket on the front, and constantly get the pant legs of his corduroys caught in the chain.
Kornheiser: “The road is for cars! I don’t drive my car on the sidewalk!”
Yeah, but as recent events have proven, you may be getting senile, Tony. It’s only a matter of time until you do.
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- NED LOCKHART - Mar 18, 2010 at 4:27 PM
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at a boy tony ! old men rule !!!!!!
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- Evan - Hartford - Mar 18, 2010 at 5:02 PM
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I’m on Tony’s side. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate “running down bicyclists.” However, driving on the road alongside bicylists is stressful as hell and dangerous.
If virtually any distraction comes my way and my car swerves, I’m the one forking out the money to the biker (or family of the biker). That’s really the bottom line. Bicyclists on the road are a potentially MAJOR liability to all of us drivers. They belong on the sidewalk, in parks, in the woods and/or on tracks.
This is about safety.
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- Wade - Mar 18, 2010 at 5:56 PM
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I agree 100%.
With Tony. Lance needs an enema.
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- don hoskyns - Mar 18, 2010 at 6:28 PM
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Road is plenty big enough for cars and bikes. If more people rode bikes this country wouldn’t be so obese, we wouldn’t rely on Middle East oil as much, we would be spending so much money trying to become healthy when we are older…the fact Tony is just a inconsiderate moron.
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- Greg B. - Mar 18, 2010 at 8:20 PM
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Tony is absolutely right on this, just as he was on Hannah Storm. Kornheiser rules!
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- Bob - Mar 19, 2010 at 2:58 PM
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Are you people kidding? It’s neither cute nor funny to urge people to commit vehicular homicide. Turn off his mike and pack him in.
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- worble - Mar 20, 2010 at 9:37 AM
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Comments like this would be harmless in a country where most people aren’t idiots. Too bad that doesn’t apply to this country. So Korhhole
is a moron.
