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Dale hansen unplugged1/8/2023 And the officers who abused the badge and the power they have should be punished. A white man in America doesn’t die for driving with a broken taillight. A white man in America doesn’t die for selling cigarettes on the street corner. “We fail to realize we can’t defend them all, and we shouldn’t defend them all. “This is what too many of us have been for a long time now.” He spoke admiringly of the courage of police officers but criticized those who blindly defend them. “The Rangers lost to Minnesota last night,” he began, “and I’m almost embarrassed to tell you I know that.” What followed was a scalding three-minute commentary on gun violence in America and how mass shootings have become so commonplace that as all hell broke loose in downtown Dallas, as the studio lights were turned off to keep the station from being a target, Hansen kept watching baseball. His words dripped with anger and sarcasm as he captured the context of one of Dallas’s worst days. He needed about twenty minutes to finish. And then he began thinking and typing, quickly and angrily. Hansen resisted, arguing he pegged all his commentaries to sports. Mike Devlin, the station’s general manager at the time, telephoned to say Hansen’s voice was needed. To understand his influence, consider the morning five years ago after a gunman murdered five Dallas police officers on a street a couple of blocks from WFAA. Most of Hansen’s most searing commentaries-the ones that went viral-have been woven into the fabric of a sportscast. But not all of them. Having jousted with each other so many times through the years, Hansen and Jones now laugh that one off. Jones heard that Hansen was going to quit and attempted to beat him to the punch by firing him. He even got Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to admit as much during his final visit to training camp in July. Having been fired from about eight of his ten television gigs, he’s proud to say the Cowboys didn’t fire him from their radio team. Not in Dallas.” That’s because the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving, and throughout his career Hansen has either done radio commentary on the games or covered them for WFAA. “I’m kind of looking forward to a big-ass Thanksgiving dinner,” he said. He seriously does have things he’d like to do. “I’ve always thought a ponytail with a big bald spot looks really good,” he said. He’s hoping that in retirement he can repair some of those relationships. He’s lost a few of those pals over the years because his commentaries- Dale Hansen Unplugged-on issues including racism, social injustice, gay rights, sexual assault, and the death of his boyhood best friend in Vietnam have rubbed some the wrong way. Instead, I tossed out topics, and Hansen took them and ran, veering here and there, and quoting himself, local television critics, coworkers, guys in his card games, and anyone else he may have come across over the years.ĭale Hansen pretty much owns whatever room he’s in, be it a Dallas cigar bar between sportscasts-yeah, he lost track of the time once or twice-or chatting up strangers on the street or his buddies on poker night. He’s a large, open book of a man-six foot four, a self-described “bald, fat white guy”-and this will not be an interview in the way we think of interviews. When I visited him this summer, he greeted me while wearing one of his trademark Tommy Bahama shirts with a pair of shorts and running shoes. These days, with the speed and scale of digital media making all news feel national, local TV news has never seemed less relevant, but Hansen has been must-see television in Dallas–Fort Worth up until his final sign-off. Thursday night, Dale Hansen signs off from one of his early commentaries before a live studio audience the week Jerry Jones bought the #Cowboys and fired Tom Landry.īeen going through video of his 38-year career for a story airing Thursday AM on /1dQpKGmUsL- Chris Sadeghi September 2, 2021 I mean, I’ve seriously been thinking and planning for this day for about five or six years.” “I think for my own benefit I have to just step away-for the time being,” he said. That said, at 73, he swears he’s committed to giving retirement a try.Īfter 38 years at WFAA-TV in Dallas, where he became an essential and fearless voice on topics few other sportscasters would dare touch, Hansen will deliver what he calls a farewell address on tonight’s ten o’clock broadcast. I want to do this before I have to drag my oxygen tank along or be pushed in a chair.” He says this without much conviction, which is stunning for someone who has never lacked confidence. “I’m hoping quite honestly that I’ve had that rush for so long, it’s probably time to wean myself off. He thinks fifty years is enough, but when a man has loved his work as much as Hansen has loved his, change can be unsettling. It’s a gorgeous day in Waxahachie, and Dale Hansen is doing his best to imagine life without the nightly adrenaline rush of live television.
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