NEW YORK -- Don Imus said he's sorry for a controversy he's created.

On his "Imus In The Morning" show Thursday, he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."

He was talking to Sid Rosenberg with Sports Talk on the phone about the Women's NCAA Championship game.

Imus started out talking about the Rutgers team as, "some rough girls from Rutgers. They got tattoos," and then went on to call them "some nappy-headed hos."

He compared them to the Tennessee team, saying "The girls from Tennessee -- they all looked cute."

The conversation then went on to compare the game to "the jigaboos versus the wannabes." Media Matters reported that the show's executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, made that comment.

On Friday morning's show, Imus said, "I want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team, which lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship game on Tuesday.

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry," Imus added.

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Imus said people should relax and not worry about "some idiot comment meant to be amusing."

A Rutgers spokesperson issued a statement saying, "We agree with Mr. Imus that this was, in his own words, an 'idiot comment.' We are very proud of the success of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Coach Stringer and the Rutgers players are outstanding ambassadors for this great institution."

MSNBC released a statement saying, "While simulcast by MSNBC, 'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments."