Popular comedian Druski caused a stir at the NFL Honors awards before the Super Bowl when he made a joke out of the name of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. And after widespread criticism that he stepped over the line, he admits that the joke was a misfire.
The comedian purposefully mispronounced Smith-Njigba’s name, even appearing to slip in a word that you definitely shouldn’t be saying on television. The reaction to the joke was fairly unanimous that it wasn’t the time or the place to do so with Smith-Njigba celebrating a career milestone by being named Offensive Player of the Year before going on to win Super Bowl LX with the Seahawks.
On CBS Mornings in an interview with Nate Burleson, Druski finally gave his side of the story. And he expressed remorse over the joke, admitting that he probably went too far. He also said he tried to personally reach out to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who did not respond to the outreach.
“I like to mess around. And you know sometimes you can go too far. I even hit him up,” Druski said. “I reached out and congratulations to him, the team on the Super Bowl. I think that was an amazing thing. I didn’t get no response back but I tried.”
“We talk about walking a line of comedy. Sometimes you do have to take that chance. It’s not all gonna be a successful hit. Nothing you do in anything to try to pursue greatness is going to be success, success, success. If most people pronounce that name, I think they will kind of fumble up.”
Smith-Njigba took the high road publicly after the NFL Honors incident while the Seahawks defended their star receiver from the poor attempt at humor. Druski has had a lot of success as a comedian pushing the envelope, but it’s for the best that he recognizes that this one didn’t quite work out as intended.
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