Buffalo Wild Wings Is Pulling Commercials With Steve Rannazzisi Over His 9/11 Lies

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In some unsurprising news, Buffalo Wild Wings said that they will stop airing current commercials featuring its spokesman Steve Rannazzisi. Yesterday, Rannazzisi revealed in a series of posts on Twitter that a story he had been telling for several years about escaping the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was not true. The news couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time — the anniversary of 9/11 was just last Friday, for one thing. For another, Rannazzisi is currently in the spotlight for the seventh and final season of FX’s The League as well as a special on Comedy Central, set to air this Saturday. FX Networks hasn’t indicated that anything will change with their plans, but Comedy Central is saying that they’re “determining how [they] will move forward.”

Rannazzisi’s partnership with Buffalo Wild Wings just began in the past year or so, and when the news about the lie broke yesterday, a spokesperson for the restaurant chain said that they were “re-evaluating” their relationship with the comedian. But now, a day later, ESPN reporter Darren Rovell says that they will discontinue showing the current batch of commercials.

It could mean that Buffalo Wild Wings is showing an immediate response to the controversy and Rannazzisi might still have a future there; but something had to be done now. And lying about escaping the Twin Towers on 9/11 is pretty damn egregious, especially if you’ve been using it as “the thing that inspired your career” since 2009.

Well, at least Pete Davidson forgives him.

(via Darren Rovell/Twitter)