Hulk Hogan Apologizes 4 Controversial Remarks...Nick's 'Mental State Was Unravelling'
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/158...611/id_0.jhtml
Jun 11 2008 12:00 PM EDT
Hulk Hogan Apologizes For Controversial Remarks, Says Nick's 'Mental State Was Unraveling'
Wrestler tells Larry King that his comments were meant to 'give Nick some type of relief.'
By Chris Harris
During an appearance Tuesday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," an emotional Hulk Hogan apologized for comments he made during telephone conversations with his son Nick Hogan (real name: Nick Bollea), who is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail in Largo, Florida. Nick is serving an eight-month sentence for his role in an August car crash that left his friend, former U.S. Marine John Graziano, brain-dead and in a coma.
Last month, Nick Hogan pleaded guilty to felony reckless driving involving serious bodily injury; up until last week, he was being held in solitary confinement, but was transferred into a cell with three other inmates and a television.
Last week, audio tapes of Hogan's phone calls to his imprisoned son surfaced online, and during one conversation, the elder Hogan can be heard suggesting to Nick that Graziano's condition was "God's will." On "Larry King," Hogan apologized for the remark, and told King that his comments were intended to alleviate some of the stress his son was experiencing during the weeks he'd spent in solitary.
"It was like the whole world [was] crashing down on my son," Hogan explained, at times fighting back tears. "Solitary confinement — most hardened criminals unravel after two or three days. Nick survived in there 28, 29 days. During that period of time, as I'm sitting there, 28 or 29 days, hardly any sleep, I did everything I could, from laugh to cry with my son, to try to tell jokes, to try to be serious, to try to keep him present and aware and walking in the spirit of God and say, be grateful if we get a break. Be grateful if somebody hits us with another slam-dunk, be grateful that we know what is in front of us.
"I was trying to help give Nick some type of relief because he is consumed with the unknown," Hogan continued. "As I was just digging to try to find a way for my son to get through another day or another hour, I was just trying to explain to him that it's 'in God's hands' or 'it's God's will.' That's what people have said for thousands of years. Did I say things wrong? Yes. I am sorry. I said it incorrectly because my son, every time I called or every time he would call me, [and] as the days went by and we couldn't get him out, especially when the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, everybody said we want to move him and then there was no movement.
"We were desperate," the wrestler added. "I didn't, even though they were trying to protect him physically because he's a juvenile in an adult prison, his mental state was unraveling. And I just had no way to help him. I was desperate. And I never meant to hurt John or the Graziano family."
Hogan also told King that, while he knew the call was being recorded, he's disappointed that the tapes were released to the media.
"This was the only thing Nick had left," he said. "This is the privacy everybody had in prison ... and to have that taken away? I was more worried than ever about his mental state."
Toward the end of the interview, Hogan said he believes the public understood his family's plight.
"At the end of the day, the support and the people — the people that are outside of this building — they're with us on this thing. So it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK," he said. "My son is a good child, and like I said, this is in God's hands. Things happen for a reason. This is to make Nick a better person. In my belief, this is to make John a better person. It is like I said before, you know, it is God's will where we're at with this situation. I refuse to accept any negativity, any naysayers. I firmly believe there is a plan. It is God's plan and God's will. We walk in the spirit of Christ and we believe for a reason that things happen. I apologize for it. I never meant to hurt anyone."
At one point, King asked Hogan if he felt in any way personally responsible for what happened to his son and Graziano, the wrestler said he did.
"It is a constant soul-searching mission," he said. "We're to a point with my life and everything that I have — I was almost in a situation where I'm not trying to be a control freak but, knowing what I had at hand with the family, being married 23 years, for everything just to disappear on me, for my wife to file for divorce and the marriage to be broken long before that, and then the accident happened and the civil case, and my son getting put in jail; I just soul-searched, figuring out what could I have done. It's just hard."
And a second opinion:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/spor...arry_king.html
(PS - comment blog below the article at the link above - interesting)
Ring Posts
Ring Posts is a Baltimore Sun blog about wrestling
Hulk Hogan’s appearance on Larry King
On the receiving end of a wave of highly negative publicity, Hulk Hogan went into damage control mode last night on CNN’s Larry King Live.
In addressing the infamous taped jailhouse conversations he and wife Linda had with their son Nick, who is serving an eighth-month sentence for felony reckless driving, a somber Hogan tried to paint a more positive picture of himself and his family. He invoked religion on several occasions and got choked up near the end of the show.
To King’s credit – and much to my surprise – he actually asked some tough questions, and to Hogan’s credit, he answered them all and also sat there while portions of the unflattering audiotapes were played.
Nothing Hogan said on the show changed my negative perception of him, Nick and Linda, however.
When the incriminating tapes were played, Hogan’s spin attempts fell flat. He did what people usually do when they are caught saying something offensive: He said the conversations were taken out of context and he criticized the media for “reckless reporting.” Hogan seemed to be saying, “Who are you going to believe – me or your lying ears?”
Hogan kept bringing up the fact that the tapes shouldn’t have been made public in the first place. I actually agree with him, but that’s missing the point. The fact is that the tapes are out there and there’s no taking back what was said on them.
I believe what people say in private reflects their true feelings, not what they say on a talk show or when pleading for leniency before a judge. The big problem for Hogan is that he already had a credibility issue before any of this happened. He lied about using steroids on The Arsenio Hall Show in the early ’90s and he is infamous for telling some whoppers about his wrestling exploits in interviews.
Hogan, who reportedly has hired a public relations firm specializing in crisis management, would have come off much better last night had he not tried to rationalize what was on the tapes or blame the media. He should have just acknowledged that he used bad judgment in a stressful situation and said that he is embarrassed and ashamed. He also should have issued an apology to the family of John Graziano – Nick’s passenger who was left paralyzed due to the crash and will need care for the rest of his life – for the pain the insensitive remarks on the tapes have caused them.
Here’s a look at some of Hogan’s statements from last night’s show:
On Nick’s driving: He said that Nick wasn’t into drag racing, he’s into precision driving. He also said that Nick got “a couple tickets.” Actually, Nick was busted for unlawful speeding three times in the 11 months prior to the accident, for going 115 mph in a 70 mph zone, 57 in a 30 and 106 in a 70. In a telling interview that Nick did for the September issue of Rides magazine, he bragged about getting out of speeding tickets because of who his father is. He said: “In my silver Viper, I was driving from Miami to Tampa. I got pulled over going 107 [mph] and the guy let me off. He’s like, ‘Hey, I know who you are, just keep going, ya know.’ Dude, I got back on the road and two minutes later I get pulled over going 113. Another highway patrol from the same county said, ‘I just heard on the radio that my buddy pulled you over and let you go. I’m a let you go this time. It’s your second warning. You get pulled over again, you’re probably going to go to jail.’ Three minutes later, [I was] doing 123 in a 50. The guy is like, ‘Hey, I just heard you got pulled over twice in the last 10 minutes. I got to write you a ticket.’ ”
On the tape of him saying that Graziano must have done something bad for God to punish him in this way: Hogan tried to dance around this, saying that “it’s in God’s hands.” When King pressed him for a real answer, Hogan said: “Did I say things wrong? Yes. I said them incorrectly.” He blamed it on being distraught and a lack of sleep and said he was “trying to give Nick some relief.” So badmouthing Nick’s critically injured friend is supposed to make Nick feel better?
On the taped conversation in which he and Nick discuss making Nick’s release from jail into a reality show: Hogan said, “I was trying to keep his spirits up. I was trying to help my son get through this. … That statement [about brokering a deal for Nick’s reality show], if that’s something that was too cut and dry, I apologize for that. If I was wrong, I was wrong.” He also said that this snippet of their conversation was taken out of context and that they were hoping for a miracle for Graziano so that he could be involved in the proposed reality show. “I just wish that someone would play the two hours before or the hour after and please put everything in the proper context,” he said. I don’t see how that is going to change anything, but if Hogan really wanted to prove that it was taken out of context, why doesn’t he call for the release of the tape and have it played in its entirety?
On the media’s coverage: He said there was a “lynch mob mentality,” referred to the media as “irresponsible” and labeled the coverage as “tabloid terrorism.”
On the Graziano family suing him: “You forgive them, for they know not what they do,” he said. “This won’t help John. We need to move forward.” Whether you are religious or not, Hogan using the Bible passage of what Jesus said on the cross about those who put him to death as an analogy takes a lot of gall. When speaking about the entire situation, Hogan again referenced God. “This is in God’s hands. I believe things happen for a reason,” he said. “This is to make Nick a better person. In my belief, this is to make John a better person.” Again, the last part of that statement takes an incredible amount of gall.
