Joe Staysniak Suspended from WFNI/Indy for Racist Comments

RADIO ONLINE | Sunday, June 7, 2020 | 1:46pm CT

Joe Staysniak

WFNI-AM (The Fan)/Indianapolis suspended former Indianapolis Colts offensive lineman, and 12-year station vet, Joe Staysniak for one week without pay on Friday for racist comments he made Wednesday, reports Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star. The morning co-host of "Jeff and Big Joe" said black people needed to stop "being a victim" and he finds it "harder and harder to believe [black people] are being targeted" by police.

According to the Bleacher Report, co-host Jeff Rickard addressed the situation during Friday's show. "Joe, quite frankly, had statements that were very insensitive to a lot of the folks that are out there fighting for their rights and feel like their voices have not been heard," he said. "And it's time for them to be heard in the wake of the George Floyd murder."

Rickard read an apology statement from Staysniak on Friday's show: "Discussing on air the riots that are happening around the country, I shared views about systemic racism that did not give the proper and due attention to the horrible injustices experienced regularly by African Americans in our society," said Staysniak. "I did not stop to consider that my own experience being raised in a family of police officers is not the same as the experiences of so many in our community and in our county. For this I apologize."

He pledged that, in the future, he would use his show as a "force for change and unification to end discrimination in any form once and for all."