Michigan running back Donovan Edwards created a stir earlier this week after he retweeted a statement defending anti-Semitic comments made by Kanye West. 97.1 The Ticket morning show host Mike Stone, who is Jewish, said he has known Edwards since he was a freshman in high school, and believes he’s a good kid who made a mistake.
“What is really funny is how this has taken a Michigan/Michigan State game into something else,” Stone said. “Someone tweeted at Rich Eisen, Adam Schefter, Dana Jacobsen, every Jew who went to Michigan that’s in the media and asked ‘Why aren’t you tweeting about this?’. Dana Jacobsen was like ‘I didn’t even know about it’.”
“You text me yesterday, and I’m not Jewish, but I didn’t even know about it. You said ‘Can you believe this?’ and I’m like ‘What happened?’,” co-host Jon Jansen said.
“You have the Michigan State people saying the ‘blue wall’ is keeping it down,” Stone stated. “Really? I saw it on ESPN. Obviously, WWJ had it, our website had it. It was all over the local news. WWJ Radio.
“Then you have the other side telling me I’m an idiot for even saying that it was disgraceful and it was just a kid making a mistake, which it was,” Stone continued. “I wish I could find the one who said basically what do you expect from the failure 97.1 The Sparty. What? I said ‘Wait, a second. Let me get this right. The morning show had somebody that played at the University of Michigan and does their color and their podcasts, and the co-host — me — is a Michigan season ticket holder. The midday show has the play-by-play voice of Michigan football, and a Michigan State alum, and the afternoon show is Michigan State. It comes down to perfectly balanced.”
Edwards has apologized for the retweet, saying it was a mistake. A Michigan member of the Board of Regents has said he spoke to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart, and the pair have assured him Edwards will visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. after the season to understand where hate speech can lead.
