In an interview with his old Def Comedy friend Russell Simmons, embattled comedian Tracy Morgan expressed remorse about the ugly anti-gay statements he made during a recent show.

He said to Simmons, via GlobalGrind:

The truth is if I had a gay son, I would love him just as much as if he was straight ... I might have to try to love even more because I know of the difficulty that he would have in society.
...
Of all the sicknesses, there is probably none more abusive than homophobia. My heart is committed to giving everyone the same rights that I deserve for myself. I don't care if you love the same sex as long as you have the ability to love someone. Also, you should have the right no matter who you are to protect and serve our country. I am deeply sorry for the comments I made. What I am most sad about is the comments I made about kids and bullying. I would never want any young person to think that I wasn't on their side and if any young person thinks they can bully a young gay kid, come see me at 30 Rock. On the corner, I would be happy to meet you. Or Brooklyn if you can't make it into Manhattan.

Well, OK then. Is that enough for people? Should more penalty be incurred? I'm not asking that leadingly, I'm genuinely and openly curious if people think that this — which sounds from here like a sincere apology — does the trick.

If we want to be cynical, we could speculate that Morgan (and his handlers, presumably) got pressure to issue a long-form apology from the NBC brass, which is now headed (for the first time in network history) by an openly gay man, Bob Greenblatt. Or from, you know, the rest of the very gay entertainment community.

[Photo via Getty]