Oct 25, 2009 11:00 PM
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Thu Sep 9
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Just days after being outed for having an affair with a younger co-worker, Baseball Tonight analyst and former-Met GM Steve Phillips has been fired by ESPN.
Of course, the announcement came late on Sunday night because they thought we wouldn't be paying attention. (They were correct!) It's not clear what happened between Wednesday when Phillips was "granted" a leave of absence and today when the network decided he had to be canned. But even the front page of ESPN.com announced the dismissal in very understated tones.
"Steve Phillips is no longer working for ESPN," network spokesman Josh Krulewitz said in a statement. "His ability to be an effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged, and it became evident it was time to part ways."
I'll say. Just in case you have trouble parsing that statement, it seems he was fired not for having sex with a subordinate or sexual harassment or creating an unsafe work environment or even for cheating on his wife. He was fired for being an embarrassment to the company. That's where the line is, in case you were wondering. Krulewitz would not comment when asked about the employment status of Brooke Hundley, the 22-year-old production assistant who slept with Phillips and then began a steady campaign of harassment toward his family. For all we know she might still be working there, but probably won't be getting promoted anytime soon.
More tomorrow, of course....
Baseball analyst, former Mets GM Phillips fired by ESPN [ESPN]
ESPN fires Phillips after sex scandal [NY Post]
ESPN fires Steve Phillips after ex-Mets GM admits affair with production assistant Brooke Hundley [New York Daily News]
UPDATE: ESPN now says Hundley no longer works there, but did not say whether she was fired or quit. Also, Phllips has entered a "treatment facility," although I can't imagine what for. [Yahoo]
Send an email to Dashiell Bennett, the author of this post, at dashiell@deadspin.com.
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