Chicago Blackhawks announcer Pat Foley was forced to issue a mea culpa on-air Monday night ... just minutes after he made a crass remark about suicide.
The scene all went down during the broadcast of Chicago's game against the Dallas Stars ... when Foley was trying to make a joke about the Blackhawks' grueling travel schedule amid the NHL's COVID-19 restrictions and regulations.
“Had I been traveling with the team this year," Foley said mid-broadcast, "I might have put a bullet in my head."
Yeah, not great.
The backlash to the comments was swift ... viewers weighed in all over social media, trashing Foley for the comments -- and it didn't take long for the play-by-play man to issue an apology.
"I wish I didn’t say that," said Foley, who's been broadcasting Blackhawks games since the early 1980s. "I'm sorry if I offended some folks. Apparently I did, so I apologize."
This is not the first time Foley's had to walk back some insensitive comments ... back in 2019 during a Blackhawks exhibition game, he famously tried to make a joke about a player with an ethnic last name.
“Ortega, sounds like he should be a shortstop” instead of hockey
— Tartarus (@ItsPronotRetail) September 30, 2019
Fantastic subtle racism by @NHLBlackhawks and @NHLonNBCSports play by play Pat foley.
Cause we Latinos don’t hear this enough on the ice already
Now On #latinoheritagemonth@NHL workin hard to be inclusive again pic.twitter.com/iqgqVSX226
"Ortega, who sounds like he ought to be a shortstop," said Foley, who issued an apology after those remarks as well.
Neither the Blackhawks nor the NHL have commented on the latest Foley incident.