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Buffalo Wild Wings drops ‘League’ star from ads amid 9/11 controversy
Rannazzisi, 37, appeared in ads for Buffalo Wild Wings that were a fixture of the NCAA basketball tournament and other sports on television.
Stephen Rannazzisi participates in "The League" panel at the FX Summer TCA Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
By
Erin McClam
Buffalo Wild Wings will stop airing commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi, star of the popular television show “The League,” after the actor admitted to lying for years about escaping death during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
“Upon careful review, we have decided to discontinue airing our current television commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
Rannazzisi, 37, appeared in ads for Buffalo Wild Wings that were a fixture of the NCAA basketball tournament and other sports on television.
The actor and comedian apologized on Wednesday after The New York Times confronted him with evidence that the story he had been telling for years about working in the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks was a lie.
The actor had previously attributed part of his success to decisions he made after the life-changing experience of narrowly escaping the terror attacks.
Rannazzisi said he worked for investment bank Merrill Lynch on the 54th floor of the south tower and escaping to the street after the first plane struck the north tower.
As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough.
But The Times reported that Rannazzisi had actually been working in Midtown Manhattan at the time and was not employed by Merrill Lynch. The bank has no record of his employment, nor did it have an office in either tower, the newspaper reported.
In a 2009 interview on the podcast “WTF,” the actor said he was still haunted. “I still have dreams of, like — you know those falling dreams?” he said.
Rannazzisi admitted to fabricating the story and apologized in a series of posts on Twitter. “As a young man, I made a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough,” he said.
— Stephen Rannazzisi (@SteveRannazzisi) September 16, 2015
