Well, someone at ESPN finally stepped up and stuck it to the World Wide Leader for doing everything they could to put a muzzle on the Ben Roethlisberger rape story.

ESPN Dallas radio host Dale Hansen finally put his foot down when he was told he couldn't talk about Big Ben anymore. Here's the full story:

Last Wednesday Hansen somehow didn’t receive the directive from Bristol, Conn. and spent 20 minutes on his “Hour of Hansen” 6-7 p.m. show dissecting the ramifications before producers read him the office memo during a commercial break.

“The directive was the fuse, but the fact nobody told me was the match that lit it,” Hansen tells me. “I don’t want to be identified with being one of ESPN’s puppets. I refuse to be anybody’s puppet. Well, Channel 8 might get to pull my strings but ESPN can’t do that for $2,000 a month.”

Hansen ignored Roethlisberger the final half-hour of his show and afterward sent an email to ESPN program director Tom Lee announcing his resignation.

I applaud Hansen for doing this, even though it's impossible to find a job right now. There was no excuse for ESPN ignoring the Roethlisberger story for so long, period.