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ESPN Fires Play-By-Play Announcer Ron Franklin For Sexist Remark To Reporter Jeannine Edwards
ESPN fired play-by-play announcer Ron Franklin Tuesday for making a sexist remark to a female colleague, the Sports Business Journal reported.
“Based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him,” ESPN said in a statement.
Franklin was pulled from the air before Saturday's Fiesta Bowl for comments he made to ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards the day before.
Franklin and Edwards had a spat before Friday's Chick-fil-A Bowl in a pre-game production meeting also attended by ESPN announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore.
When the conversation turned to the subject of Gilmore's wife Marie being elected mayor of Alameda, Calif., Edwards tried to join in but said she was shut down by Franklin.
"Listen to me, sweet baby, let me tell you something... " Franklin is said to have told her.
Edwards then said she told him not to speak to her like that, to which he responded: “OK then, listen to me, a**hole.”
In a statement Monday, Franklin said: "I said some things I shouldn't have and am sorry. I deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl."
A colleague reported Franklin's comments to ESPN management, who attempted to pull him from the Chick-fil-A Bowl broadcast, but it was too late to find a replacement.
He was then pulled from Saturday's Fiesta Bowl broadcast instead.
Franklin, a 68-year-old native of Mississippi, has called college football and basketball games for ESPN since 1987.
Franklin also came under fire in 2005 for referring to sideline reporter Holly Rowe as "sweetheart" during a football game between Purdue and Notre Dame.
Source: AP