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The Reason This North Dakota Sports Announcer Was Suspended Will Leave You Scratching Your Head

Feb. 20, 2013 10:00pm Jason Howerton

North Dakota Sports Announcer Suspended The Reason Why Will Leave You Scratching Your Head

Lenny Antwi of the University of North Dakota looks to pass past North Dakota State University s TrayVonn Wright during an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012 game at the Fargodome in Fargo, N.D. Credit: AP

The University of North Dakota has suspended men’s basketball play-by-play announcer Paul Ralston for two games because he used the phrase “choke job” to describe an tough overtime loss to Northern Arizona University.

Ralston made the comment during his interview with North Dakota head coach Brian Jones after the team was defeated 74-72 on Saturday, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

The sports website TheSpread.com defines the phrase “choke job” as “Losing a wager [in this case a basketball game ] you thought you had won.” It is unclear why using the term would lead to a suspension.

It certainly appears that the team choked in during the final moments of the game. North Dakota led in the final minute of the game, but Northern Arizona was able to close the gap and force the game into overtime. North Dakota also missed five free throws during the last four minutes of regulation play, according to ESPN.com.

Brian Faison, the school’s athletic director, says Ralston will not be calling the game at Northern Colorado on Wednesday or Saturday’s match-up against Nebraska-Omaha. Filling in for him is associate athletic director Kyle Doperalski.

Ralston is scheduled to return to action on Feb. 28 when North Dakota plays Portland State.

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Comments (90)

huey6367
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:53am
PC is destroying this country.

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- theaton
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 9:52am
  People who do not believe in freedom and liberty are destroying this country. In this case, the people don’t like free speech so they suspend someone for exercising it. It is we who put up with it that are also destroying this country.
  
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- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:17am
  It’s time to fight back.
  PC will never stop until everything is offensive.
  Mock the whiners.
  
  Report this comment
- imgreenlantern2
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:51am
  Not only is PC destroying America (the term political correct by the way was invented and first used by the communist in Russia), but the principles being applied by King Barack the 1st called Cloward-Piven.
  
  If you don’t know what that is go look it up. It’s King Barack to a T.
  
  Report this comment
- Jim in Houston
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:59am
  My, my they sure are sensitive in North Dakota. I thought they were rugged westerners, guess I was wrong.
  
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- turkey13
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 11:39am
  The race card showed up as Obama was running for president and a general trashing of the First Ammendment also. Back in the 60′s in high school I had two friends that were all ways calling each other names. Gerome called one friend Mudfish, Fatso, Tubby, Lard A_ss, etc. Greg called Gerome Spear Chunker, Bongo Lips, Afro, etc. This was before political correctness, but after forced busing. We were the best of friends. If this was done now, Greg would be charged with a hate crime. Gerome would not be charged since he was African American.
  
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- phillips1990702
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 11:58am
  You got that right.
  
  Report this comment
- phoenix110
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 1:19pm
  Not even PC can fix stupid. And by suspending someone for saying “choke job”, without defining how or why this was offensive, or how the use violated some University rule, is stupid. Well, it would be stupid even if they did all that.
  
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- insideman1234
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 2:21pm
  Wonder what would have happened to the announcer if he made a gun using his hand……
  
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- fmbmitgt
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 5:36pm
  BULL!! I’m more conservative than you and he absolutely should be suspended. I agree with Okla. St. football coach Mike Gundy in his, “I’m a man! I’m forty!” rant. Here in Wis., the Milw. Bucks choked (another) one away last night. It’s very different to criticize pro athletes compared to college kids. This has nothing to do with political correctness. Trust me – as a conservative on the UW-Madison campus, having the only car without a now-fading, “Recall Scott Walker” bumper sticker (giggle) I see PC every day.
  
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- bonesiii
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:59pm
  Yet again, how about some PRIOR NOTICE, you PC people? lol I’d like to know what’s offensive BEFORE it’s stated, not after.
  
  Most likely they had some personal beef with him and just had to find some excuse to act on their vendetta. Odd, though.
  
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- apexmoon
  Posted on February 22, 2013 at 9:10am
  @IMGREENLANTERN2
  
  I never heard that about the Russians having started using the term PC. Can you provide a source for that? I’d like to read up on that a little.
  
  Report this comment
retiredfire
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:21am
If “choke job” can get an announcer, or if you extrapolate it, a reporter, suspended; then nationwide there would have been wholesale suspensions for the description of the 49ers final series of downs in the past Super Bowl.

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- starman70
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 9:57am
  This is just another example of the incredible stupidity which is prevalent in the media and especially on the college campuses. The PC police will take any statement, twist it around to mean something else and then suspend or fire an announcer.
  
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Hausmaus
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 6:55am
At the rate we’re going simply breathing will be considered a felony. If you think this is funny just imagine the enourmous numbers of morons, and jackasses we have in government that will make this a fact.

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- redfish52
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:23am
  Agreed…PC is way out of control…Dr. Ben Carlson said it directly to Obama…we are becoming a nation of big sissy girls who you can’t look at cross without them crying. The thing is the rules usually only protect liberals..I.E.- Bob Beckel….no rapes on college campus’s comment. You will not hear MSNBC say one word about it.
  
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What the Heck
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 6:25am
While we were not looking, the started taking our first amendment rights away. We better wake up, this PC SH IT has gone so far we are walking in fear and not even aware of it. Wake up, take back your freedoms, take back your ability to monitor your own speech with out the speech speech on your case, seeking your guns and amo, and forcing you to accept things you just do not like. Our kids can not wear a shirt, or bandana. Moo slims bash us and no one say a damn thing. WHY.
I am me, you go be you and leave me alone with what I say and do.

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- huey6367
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:01am
  I don’t bow to the PC police. I say it like it is and the wimpy little people that seem to be in control of this country today find what I say to be “racist”. I am not racist. I love and believe in this country, how it was founded and assimilation into this country.
  
  Yesterday, two girls that work downstairs are speaking Spansih to each other. They only seem to do that when I show up. One then stops and asks, in English, if I could bring in a case of water from the warehouse. I said “only if you speak English”. Then there was an argument. In the end, she would not stop speaking Spanish so she was thirsty. I am sick of people not taking a stand for what they believe because they fear the ‘retaliation’.
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 6:23am
How about replacing him with this guy for a few days…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_oOLQi5-is

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PAUL GULLO
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 5:51am
——AP News————
Governed Mitt Romney has just said he is going to ” choke the life out of every woman ”
———-This has been AP news———-

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betterpart
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 3:23am
Those censoring folks need to get out more. Stupid is as stupid does.

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 11:49am
  People like this and they want to make pot legal. Where will it all end?
  
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VoteRightDammit
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 2:56am
Sounds like gays are somehow involved in this. Only they exercise such blatant bullying.

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denkat56
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 2:07am
The PC police need to get a grip and a life.

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TxFishrMike
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 1:09am
Wow. It’s not like he said something to the effect, we had the opportunity to shoot down TrayVonn Wright and the NDSU team, and we just couldn’t pull the trigger.. now THAT might be over the line or at least in bad taste. But, “choke job”? the PC police (whiners) are running the asylum for sure.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:53am
I am d*mn sick and tired of the USRA (United Socialists Republics of America). Free Speech is as under attack as the2nd amendment is. I want an American Spring but I want it 1776 style.

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- huey6367
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:02am
  it’s coming
  
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dbeesh
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:11am
This is the same school that did a ‘choke job’ by letting the NCAA (national communist athletic association) run over them and force the team name from the FIGHTING Sioux to the “Roll over and wet themselves”. Too PC for anyone’s good and too spaghetti spined to hear the truth.

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- mr_ness
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:45am
  i liked that name to as I am part sioux
  
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shogun459
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:02am
“Say the right things or else.”

Freedom of speech is a thing of the past, all that remains is for the hammer to come down.

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SouthP
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 11:08pm
Either there is some serious PC nonsense going on, or they are sending a message to the play by play announcer to only say favorable things about the team. If I was him, I would tell them to shove their job. If they can’t take a level of criticism as simple as that, they should not participate in athletics.

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- Caniac Steve
  Posted on February 20, 2013 at 11:37pm
  As Dr. carson said ..the PC Police are alive and well…what a croc of crapola !!
  
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Rowgue
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:51pm
An announcer employed by a team is part of a marketting team. He is paid to promote the team and be an ambassador for it. Their contracts all reflect that.

And you’re not really grasping the full concept of what “choke job” means. It’s pretty much the ultimate insult you can levy at a coach or a team. It doesn’t just mean that you lost a game you thought you had won. It implies that it’s unfathomable that you managed to lose, and that doing so is an indication that you either stopped trying or were too stupid to make the correct decisions that would have won the game.

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- Clownzilla
  Posted on February 20, 2013 at 11:58pm
  I always called it “their game to lose”. Regardelss, suspending him over the term was ridiculous because the team lost a game they should not of lost and he was pointing that out.
  
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- Unconquerablesoul
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:01am
  This is an idiotic statement. We all have choked. It’s part of life. Whether it is missing the three foot putt with your buddies that cost a round of beers, or an organized game. What makes Americans (old school patriots, not the new-school PC b!tches) is their ability to learn from the mistake. To practice harder, to remember how to finish etc. I know announcers are supposed to be supportive, but you also have to be objective- otherwise you wind up looking like a democratic senator.
  
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- The Big Mick
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:19am
  Naw, Rowgue,
  to quote the 20th Century’s Greatest Philosopher: “Choke is as Choke does”.
  Firing your supporters for telling you the Truth is the quickest way to defeat.
  Duke’s Coach Krzyzewski says: “Anything but the Truth is a waste of time.”
  
  Report this comment
- phil1765
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 2:29am
  Rowgue
  Ok PC boy, I guess we should go back and look at how many announcers have said their team choked over the years and suspend them. It sure did sound like an accurate account of what went on at the end of the game. Easy way to end all the talk is to win the game otherwise you take whatever you get. Is it your opinion that everyone that accurately describes a situation should be suspended if it hurts someones delicate psyche?
  
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- Rowgue
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 3:56pm
  Lol I’m the least PC person you’ll ever meet. But he has a contract which defines the terms of his employment. You’re failing to see the distinction between if some random guy says the team/coach choked and when the guy they’re paying to essentially advertise the team says it.
  
  Like a company would accept the head of their marketting department making a public statement about how crappy the last product they launched is. It has nothing to do with being PC and everything to do with the fact that you are intentionally doing exactly the opposite of what you’re being paid to do.
  
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BehindBlueEyes
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:49pm
That term comes from one of services Monica Lewinsky provided to Slick Willy while she was vacuuming under his desk.

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The Big Mick
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:28pm
Gee what would have happened had he described, as I have heard numerous announcers do, a particularly violent dunk on an opponent as a “facial”?
This interests me in that I scent somehow a “racial” vibe is in the back of this. Maybe feminist, but remember those Tiger Woods’ stexts about “choking”? Nearly ALL modern Sport and especially Basketball has been corrupted and co-opted by the GangstaHoodin Hip Hop Culture. The whole IDIOM is Black Urban Ghetto Chic “Street Ball”. So is this announcer “white” or…..not? It will be interesting to see if Political Correctness CAN be applied to a milieu that is ESSENTIALLY Black Racist in its culture, forms and expressions. What will they ban next?

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1_Smoot_Tall
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:21pm
Sports are a stupid waste of money, education, and time – like gambling.

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- RabidPatriot
  Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:57pm
  Actually, college sports programs make large amounts of money for their schools. The funding helps pay for scholarships and academic programs that cost the school more than what the schools bring in for tuition.
  
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- Margyt
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:33pm
  Lovely comment, but what does it have to do with the subject? Lots of things (movies, TV, dinner out with family or friends could be considered a waste of time depending on your frame of reference). I, though, see it as a way to bring people together to regenerate and build relationships. My sons and dying husband watching baseball together will always be one of my most precious memories. Now our local college basketball team is our excuse to call and get together.
  
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DeadBuffalo
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:19pm
I could understand if it were South Carolina, where you wouldn’t want to use the word choke in the same sentence with their mascot…

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dadadadio
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:15pm
Some idiot potty-brain has confused a ‘CJ’ with a ‘BJ’….

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- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:29pm
  At least he didn’t define the word “Is”.
  
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YOURSENSEI
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:14pm
This is what you must know:

Choke job . . hmm . . . I’m at a loss.

Fubared, you want to take this one? Maybe you can tell us about your chicken.

It is so.

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- Zipit
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:49am
  Allow me FUBARED! It’s kinda hard for for you to choke WANG! Aren’t all of your best friends like, eight years old?
  
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Ishmot2
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:14pm
Near as I can tell, they chocked!

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brickmoon
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:13pm
Ah, yes — UND: Home of the Fighti… no, that’s too violent… Siou… uh… team without a mascot, because it wasn’t politically correct.

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mbean
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:12pm
Freedom of speech doesn’t apply to paid sports announcers.?

Is this one of those terms that only Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin would understand?

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DZ-015
Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:11pm
Just another example of how speaking the truth can hurt you.

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- The Big Mick
  Posted on February 20, 2013 at 10:29pm
  Naw, DZ, it ain’t the Truth you speak that hurts you, it’s WHO you speak it ABOUT.
  
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- Schteveo
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 5:02pm
  I read the story twice, thinking perhaps the teams mascot was a chicken, and THAT’S what got him canned..
  
  “…tonight at the arena, it was another chicken choke job,…”.
  
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