(Volkmann got Obama’ed on The Tonight Show)
Jacob Volkmann will likely think twice next time about cracking a joke about wanting to ground and pound the Commander in Chief of the United States.
The UFC lightweight, who made headlines when the Secret Service paid him a visit to question him about post-UFC 125 comments he made about wanting to go a few rounds with President Barack Obama so he could show him what he thought of his healthcare policy.
It now appears that the tongue-in-cheek soundbite he fed Ariel Helwani got him more than just a spot on The Tonight Show and Fox Business News.
Volkmann was informed this week that he has been temporarily suspended with pay from his assistant wrestling coach position he has held for the past several years at White Bear Lake Area High School, pending an investigation of his remarks about Obama by the school administrators.
The 30-year-old Minnesota chiropractor who owns his own practice also serves as the volunteer head coach of the town’s elementary school wrestling team, but was told that his non-paid coaching position was not at risk.
He told Sherdog that the reason he was given for the "suspension" was that he was basically guilty of exercising his First Amendment rights, which "may send the wrong message to the kids he coaches" even though authorities dismissed the perceived threat as being a non-issue a week ago.
“It’s very frustrating that they think that I’m being a bad influence on the students.” Volkmann said. “That’s what their reason was [for placing me on leave].
He has explained his choice of words ad-nauseum, but it didn’t stop the school board from launching it’s own investigation.
"I deal with a lot of insurance, and the [healthcare] bill gave insurance companies quite a bit of power. But it forced them to also give insurance to everybody, which I’m not against that at all. I’m just against the power that they got to deny claims and to deny coverage to health care providers," he explained. "So that’s why I was speaking. I was speaking through the provider’s standpoint, not the insured’s standpoint.”
Although the media attention seems to have tapered off, Volkmann says that newspaper, magazine and TV interview requests continue to roll in.
“I don’t even think it’s done yet,” Volkmann said. “I’ve got fricking ‘Inside Edition’ coming tomorrow.”
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People did, and they did. Dude got held and interrogated in my town here for making an offhand joke about getting Bush while he was in town for a campaign stop in 2004 at a Taco Bell. Held for 7 hours until well after Bush had left. It is not all new because there's a black man. Obama wasn't the first president to use a teleprompted, the Secret Service takes all voiced threats to any President very seriously. C'mon folks, get a sense of perspective. The guy said something stupid, got a cursory visit from the feds, like has happened hundreds of times all over the country, in every modern administration.
And don't go on about free speech if you don't understand it. Free speech doesn't mean you can walk around running your mouth like a fucking moron without ever worrying about consequences. It means that the government does not restrict speech beyond reasonable measurements (fire in a crowded theater, etc). It has nothing to do with how the public reacts, or the media reacts, or an employer. You are free to say what you want and the rest of us are free to react to it in non-violent ways, for good or bad.