ABC 7's Giangreco Apologizes For 'Cut Cutler Or Cut Your Wrists' Graphic

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 17, 2014 8:30PM

ABC 7 sportscaster Mark Giangreco has apologized for airing a graphic on that station’s 10 p.m. newscast Tuesday that made an off-handed, cheeky allusion to suicide when reporting on the Bears current dysfunctional state. The graphic read “Cut Cutler or Cut Your Wrists.”

Now Giangreco, along with the late Tim Weigel, pioneered the snarky sportscaster role in Chicago that now permeates the media landscape everywhere from sports talk radio stations to ESPN and their clones. And sports reporters aren’t exactly the most objective sorts; they’re fanboys, and Giangreco’s graphic let viewers know where he stood on the Bears’ current woes.

This being the Internet Age, however, a backlash to the “cut your wrists” part of the graphic was guaranteed and immediate once screengrabs were shared.

The Sun-Times' Dan Cahill noted it wasn't the first time Giangreco crossed a line in order to get a laugh.

His flip comment in 1999 about a thin Walter Payton looking like “Ghandi,” led to all sorts of rumors about Payton’s health and an on-air apology by Giangreco, who then told the Tribune:

“I would never take an opportunity like that to say something malicious. This is one of those life lessons. Maybe in the future I will pause before I say something. I hope to have a personal conversation with Walter about this.”

That conversation came a few weeks later when Payton called the sportscaster and offered forgiveness. Payton died months later of a rare liver disease.

Giangreco will further apologize for the graphic during this evening's broadcasts.