Defending Hulk Hogan: I can't

This might be the most somber post I ever write. I am a professional wrestling fan. Note, I have an advanced degree, have never believed wrestling was real and I don't own a pair of jorts. I find it genuinely entertaining and I enjoy how outlandish the WWE can be. Hulk Hogan has never been my personal favorite wrestler but you can't separate the Hulkster persona from wrestling's evolution and rise to popularity. This week, footage leaked that showed Hogan going on a racist rant. The things he says are indefensible, I won't go into them. They are abhorrent...there can be no discussion on whether or not the comments are OK. They aren't.

What do we do with this knowledge now? WWE moved swiftly after the footage's release and severed their ties with Hogan immediately. WWE did what it needed to do. They are a publicly held company that cannot afford to be aligned with such racist ideologies. It would cost them too much money. As much as they would like to stick by Hogan that was never a choice for them. We, as fans, have a different choice. Each of us can make their own decision on how to process this new information.

I suspect most fans will choose to ignore it. I wish I could go this route. He will be banished from WWE TV and he will be out of sight and out of mind for most fans. I can't do this though. Maybe it's just how I am wired, but I must deal with it. 

On the one hand, I am motivated to brand Hogan as a bad person and write him off forever. In the very immediate aftermath that was my plan. How could I ever contemplating cheering for someone who is capable of saying such horrible things? 

Maybe it's childhood nostalgia or my forgiving, liberal political mindset but I want to see good in the Hulkster. With that in mind, I set out to forge a way to forgive. As it happened, it didn't take me nearly the effort to find a crack in the anti Hogan narrative as I thought. Lost in the broad narrative is the fact that the sex tape that contains these racist remarks was filmed eight years ago.

Eight years ago I was an entirely different person. Weren't you? If you are reading this you likely live somewhere different, have become a parent or have had a change in marital status in the last eight years. Who among us didn't say something eight years ago that would be deemed atrocious by you today? 

Even with this knowledge I can't forgive Hogan. I can't look kids in the eye and tell them I'm a good person if I condone this in any way. I haven't written Hogan off forever, but it will be a long road back.