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A Minnesota sports broadcaster is under scrutiny for comments he made last week regarding ICE protestorsPaul Allen, the voice of the Minnesota Vikings, incorrectly claimed the protestors were “paid” and wondered on air if they were getting “hazard pay” to be out in inclement winter weatherOne day later, the radio host used another ill-timed phrase to describe a fellow broadcaster; Allen has apologized for both instances
A Minnesota sports radio personality is apologizing after he called into question the intentions of ICE protestors in Minneapolis.
Paul Allen, the voice of the Minnesota Vikings football team, issued a statement on Monday, Jan. 26 following his on-air comments Friday in which he discussed the inclement weather set to hit the area, and wondered how it would affect the city’s ongoing ICE protests.
“I made a comment on Friday about protesters and the weather that was insensitive and poorly timed, and I’m sorry,” Allen, 60, said in a prepared statement. “It was a misguided attempt at humor and while it was never meant with any ill intent or political affront, I absolutely and whole-heartedly want to apologize to those who genuinely were hurt or offended by it.”
Allen added, “I’m taking a few days off.”
Last week, the talk show host was discussing the upcoming winter storm with former Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway and Vikings beat reporter Alec Lewis when he made what he now calls a “cheap one-liner.”
A makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026.
Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty
“In conditions like this, do paid protesters get hazard pay?” Allen ventured. “Those are the things that I’ve been thinking about this morning.”
“Yeah, probably not going to touch that one,” Greenway responded, as Allen then segued to NFL coaches who were fired this season and who have also “caught strays.”
Yet on Saturday, Allen jumped into the fray again, when he observed in a since-deleted post on X that a fellow broadcaster was doing “good work” and “firing bullets.”
The comment came on the same day that 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed by a federal immigration agent.
Allen later posted on X that he did not know of Pretti’s killing.
“Pulled that post I had praising friend Parker Fox for doing good work on TV and the words I used,” he wrote. “Did not know at that time about the shooting of a man in MPLS. I do now and yanked the tweet because my description of his performance lacked tact given the current situation. I am sorry. May God be with us all.”
In a separate post, he described the toll that the violence in Minneapolis had taken on him.
“I have to stop watching all this for a little bit,” he wrote. “I’m so sad this terror is happening all around us here in MN. I just prayed to God’s will for it to somehow stop and now and started crying.”