Mike Greenberg Is Not The First Man To Accidentally Say "Martin Luther Koon"

It turns out the former mayor of Selma, Ala., Joseph Smitherman, also accidentally slurred his words but he probably didn't get half the grief poor Greeny received yesterday.

From Smitherman's obit, the NYT recalled:

In a nationally televised news conference in early 1965, the mayor was heard replacing the last name of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the word "coon." He later said he had just had a conversation with a Selma bail bondsman named Martin Koon and that it was an honest slip of the tongue.

Let's be thankful Greenberg didn't use the old "I was talking to a bail bondsman named Martin Koon" excuse to unnecessarily apologize for what was, to me, an innocent mistake.

[ YouTube][ NYT]