I’ve mentioned previously that Tom Greenwood claims to have inside knowledge of Don Imus’ alleged Imelda-eque fetish for running shoes. Funnily enough, there’s at least one NY columnist who’d like to run WFAN’s shock shit jock out of town. From Filip Bondy in Saturday’s New York Daily News.

Of all the very dumb and nasty things screamed on sports TV and radio these last few years, by everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Sid Rosenberg, what Don Imus said on Wednesday about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was the very worst, the most hateful of all.

What he said was terrible not only because of its content, which was despicable in its own right. It was even worse because of its target, a group of 19- to 21-year-old, largely African-American women from a nearby state university who had just accomplished something wonderful and unexpected by reaching the Final Four. What do you tell these women now, who did absolutely nothing to deserve such shameful scorn, to face such horrendous racist remarks?

And though this never will happen in a million years, Imus should be fired for it today – actually, yesterday – just as the National Association of Black Journalists demands.

He should be axed for one of the most despicable comments ever uttered on the air. If Limbaugh can be dumped by ESPN for an ill-informed opinion about Donovan McNabb, if Rosenberg can be dropped by WFAN for his vile comments about Kylie Minogue’s battle with breast cancer, then Imus deserves the same treatment, despite his status.

Of course, there are enormous profits to consider, and so the cowards at MSNBC and WFAN are simply standing back, distancing themselves from Imus, reminding viewers and listeners that the man speaks only for himself – even though he does it on their time and networks. The fact that he was even on the air yesterday, two days after his comments, was in itself a disgrace.

Here’s the deal, or what the deal ought to be: You don’t get to say these things, even if you finally decide to change your mind and apologize, nearly 24 hours later. You just don’t call young college women “nappy-headed hos.”

If you do, you should lose your microphone, whether or not you are the bread and butter and honey and cash cow of the local sports station.