An Ode To "The Hey Song"

It was an anthem for two entire generations of sports fans. It has only one understandable word throughout the entire song and for the last four years in the National Football League, it has not been played in a single stadium.

Why, you ask?

From what I can find,the NFL asked, more like laid down an edict, all teams to cease the playing of Gary Glitter's song "Rock and Roll Part 2" during NFL games in 2006 after Glitter was arrested and charged with molesting two under-aged girls in Vietnam in 2005.

After three years of wondering why the Steelers had stopped playing the original all together after touchdowns, and hearing a covered version of the song while attending the 2008 AFC Championship, I decided to find out once and for all if and why it was banned in the NFL. My assumed worst-case scenario was correct.

The NFL is starting to be sucked into the whirlpool of political correctness that most of the country has over the years. According to the NFL, listening to or playing this song means that you support child molestation or other obscene acts that are similar to it. Am I right?

The NHL and MLB don't seem to share the same view. The Penguins blare the hymn as part of their goal horn and the Pirates play it after one of their eight annual home runs at PNC Park. I don't give the Pirates much credit, but I sure am going to do it here. For once the Pirates are above the Steelers and the NFL. There were never any protesters outside of Mellon Arena and PNC, why does the NFL feel that will happen outside of their stadiums? If anything, there should be protesting for the breaking of many traditions in such stadiums.

I'm sure the first thing on the fans of football is child molestation when their favorite team scores a dramatic touchdown. Banning the song just gives Glitter more attention for all of the wrong reasons. When we first heard a different song after a tocuhdown, we wondered where our touch down song went. When the covered version by Tube Tops 2000 was played after Troy Polamalu iced a trip to Super Bowl XLIII, we all stopped celebrating, looked at each other and asked what the hell this song was because it sounded like hell.

Banning the song causes everyone to figure out why it's not being played, thus causing them to learn what the artist did, and if it was in fact morally wrong. Therefore, defeating your entire purpose when you decided to no longer play the song. Catch my drift?

Just because I enjoy a song by someone who was charged with child molestation doesn't mean I support what ever it was that he/she did. It just means I enjoy listening to the damn song.

Source: http://thebarstool412.blogspot.com/2010/08/ode-to-hey-song.html