'Voice of the Colts' Who 'Retired' was Forced to Quit for N-bombing Somebody
Source – Bob Lamey’s retirement has been overshadowed by allegations the “Voice of the Colts” used a racial slur during a post-interview conversation.
According to a report from WTHR-TV, an NBC-affiliated station based in Indianapolis, Lamey used the n-word in a conversation with a friend while a black employee of the local radio broadcaster where he had just conducted an interview was listening nearby.
The employee said she heard Lamey use the racial slur … off the air, during a conversation after an interview at Colts Camp on August 14.
“He had asked me if the mics were off and I said, ‘Yeah, I turned everything off. You’re fine,'” she explained. “Bob Lamey’s describing this person saying he was asked in an interview, ‘Do you think anyone’s holding back their speed at IMS during quals? Do you think anyone’s holding back?’ And that person had replied ‘there aren’t any ‘blank’ in this race.”
Holy shit, if this isn’t a perfect example of life imitating art I don’t know what is. This is straight up the plot of the
episode “Broadcaster’s Jinx” from this past season of Brockmire. Where Hank Azaria gets to sit in on the final game of Atlanta Brave’s legend Art Newlie before he takes over the mic from him. Only to find out this genteel, beloved southern gentleman in the bow tie is actually a vile old redneck who hates all minorities and thinks they’re ruining baseball. Except that in Bob Lamey’s case he doesn’t have a drunken, self-destructive misanthrope in the booth derailing his own career by calling him out on the air.
I suppose the real miracle is that this doesn’t happen more often. According to my research (ie 10 seconds on Bob Lamey’s Wiki), he was born in 1938. That means he’s about to turn 80. And has been broadcasting his whole adult life. Meanings he probably spent a good two generations in front of a microphone during a time you could get away with saying whatever the hell you wanted and nobody would call you out on it. And I don’t imagine you hit your late 70s and then just arbitrarily decide that lobbing N-bombs around your coworkers is something you’ll try out for the first time. So he’s undoubtedly been doing it his whole career and finally just messed up by saying in front of someone who wasn’t going keep her mouth shut just because he’s a revered old coot who looks like Santa Claus and has been calling games since Jim Crow.
And so thus ends the career of a broadcast legend who kept a lid on his being an N-bombing racist until he stuck around one season too many and got exposed. The one other difference between him and the guy in that Brockmire episode is the Colts hid the truth and allowed Lamey to “retire” with dignity. Until the real story came out. And now we’ll all be able to sit back and enjoy reading the 150 inevitable stories of people saying they heard him say this stuff before. Best wishes Bob. Happy retirement!