Oops! Vikings Play-By-Play Moron Chooses Yesterday’s Right-Wing Lie For Wisecrack About Minneapolis Protesters

Paul Allen, longtime play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Vikings and "the voice" of the Minnesota Vikings Radio Network, took a moment on his show on KFAN Friday to engage in some easy right-wing propagandizing. In a conversation about dangerous sub-zero temperatures in the upper Midwest, and in the manner of one who is certain of his footing, Allen made a crack about the residents of Minneapolis who've filled the city's streets this weekend to protest the violent occupation of their city by unaccountable, marauding federal goons.

"Do paid protesters get hazard pay?" asked Allen, as first reported by Awful Announcing. "Those are the things I've been thinking about this morning." The conversation moved on to football, after one of Allen's hosts refused to engage in this line of commentary. Allen was not to be deterred. "Everybody's catching strays this week: [Brian] Flores; Kevin Stefanski, from Baker [Mayfield]; Charlie 'Biyatch' caught one out of nowhere; they're just all over," Allen said, in a discussion about NFL coaches and former players, before wrenching the subject back around to his preferred talking point. "Paid protesters caught one out of nowhere this morning," he continued, an apparent reference to his own ill-advised joke from minutes earlier. Allen was again met with awkward disengagement, and quickly pivoted back around to sports.

The clip was reportedly removed from the show's podcast feed. Allen posted a weepy, performatively Christian non-apology to his Twitter account Saturday afternoon, careful to avoid expressing anything even vaguely like community solidarity but assuring his followers that his face was, at that moment, tear-streaked: