Drew Soicher crosses a line with Denver Broncos' Alzheimer joke

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:

instagram.com/p/q4m1qCysbe

Didja hear the one about Drew Soicher’s on-air misstep?

Ba-dum-dum! Drew Soicher got the jokey TV rhythm right (sounds like a vaudeville gag) but the content uncomfortably wrong. It instantly blew up on social media.

“So much talk about Alzheimer’s at Broncos training camp, I keep checking my roster to see if that’s a new player on the team.”

Sometimes TV anchors rely on years of zingy writing without regard to the particulars of what they’re talking about. In this case, 9News’ sportsguy Soicher erred on the side of tastelessness.

On Wednesday, the Denver Broncos announced that Pat Bowlen had resigned control of the team, acknowledging he’s dealing with Alzheimer’s disease.

9News sports producer Reno Boyd said the gaffe was “a misunderstanding.” Soicher was not available to elaborate.



More...

[Rob]

Deadspin also noticed:
http://deadspin.com/denver-sports-an...lzh-1611090311

Denver Sports Anchor Can't Help But Notice All This Alzheimer's

Here's 9NEWS Denver's Drew Soicher with maybe not the best lead-in to today's sports report: an Alzheimer's joke.

In Soicher's defense, the story immediately preceding this report was about research into a cure for Alzheimer's disease. And the story Soicher was introing was about Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas leaving camp to attend the funeral of his grandmother, who died from complications related to Alzheimer's. Add that to Broncos owner Pat Bowlen stepping down yesterday because of his battle with Alzheimer's disease, and that is an awful lot of talk about Alzheimer's.

Much like Soicher, we are sick of this week and wish it would end.

[Rob]

Update: Soicher Apologizes Via Twitter.

http://twitter.com/DrewSoicher/statu...89018967683072


It wasn't written as a joke.

I apologize to anybody who was offended.

Here's the real and entire segment.

http://t.co/pysAcvvS8I

— Drew Soicher (@DrewSoicher) July 25, 2014

[Rob]

The entire newscast was dominated by Alzheimers stories... and yes, it looked a little worse when taken out of the context of the entire newscast. But I personally don't think what he said was big deal at all.