A tearful Terry Bollea, better known as wrestling's Hulk Hogan, apologized on national television Monday morning for a racist rant caught on video.

The incident cost Bollea his job with the WWE earlier this summer. 

Bollea told Good Morning America that he was embarrassed of his words. But he also blamed growing up in South Tampa for his admitted racial bias.

"A lot of people need to realize that you inherit things from the environment," Bollea said. "And where I grew up, it was South Tampa. It was a really rough neighborhood, very low income. And all my friends, we greeted each other saying that word. The word was just thrown around like it was nothing."

Not the South Tampa many know today, but former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco said it was a very different time in the late 1960s and early '70s, when Bollea was attending school there.

"Before I became mayor the first time, we had separate drinking fountains for blacks and whites, separate places to eat, to sit on a bus," Greco said.

Now, Greco said people should know better than to use racially charged language, calling it unacceptable.

Still, Greco was quick to defend the Bay area celebrity, saying Hogan's apology seemed sincere.