Boston Sports Radio Host Gets Into Heated Argument With Coworker Who Used Paternity Leave

Michael Felger, a radio host at Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub, has an issue with paternity leave. He’s griped about it before with Celtics player Al Horford and this week with Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. Felger recently went after his coworker, CBS Boston sportswriter Michael Hurley, whose wife had a kid. Hurley didn’t like that.

On Friday’s show, Hurley called in to defend himself and talked about how grateful he was that his company offered paternity leave, allowing him to help with the baby since his parents and his wife’s parents weren’t able to. Most sports radio arguments are to some extent performative—Felger joked that all Hurley does for his job is “come in here for 45 minutes a day and write whiny Deflategate articles”—but Hurley seemed legitimately angry. When Felger realized that, he got mad, too.

“This is what life is like for people who don’t summer in Nantucket,” Hurley said, and that really struck a nerve.

“Hey, Hurley, you sound serious,” Felger said. “Why do you think I get to summer in Nantucket? Because I work my ass off, Hurley! Because I work my ass off! And when my wife had a baby, I went into work two days later because my work’s important to me. I didn’t think you were serious. You’re serious! You want a tissue? Why do you think I summer in Nantucket? You think that was handed to me? You asshat!”

There’s a seven-minute video, or a 10-minute audio clip which makes Felger look like more of a buffoon (he blamed paternity leave on “millennials”).

Felger repeatedly boasted about how he missed as little work as possible after his wife had a child. Voluntarily surrendering a company benefit and bragging about it to justify your vacation doesn’t make you a tough, model employee. It means you’re a sap.

H/t to Daniel