A Philadelphia sports radio host has reportedly been fired from a TV gig after offensive comments about female play-by-play announcers.
Last month, after Beth Mowins called a Monday Night Football game for ESPN, 97.5 the Fanatic host Mike Missanelli wondered why Mowins should have that job… while admitting he didn’t actually listen to her call the game. As reported by Crossing Broad:
“I don’t know why the sporting world needs a female play-by-play person on an NFL game. And I know that sounds harsh, and I just want to know what is the reason for it?”
After Missanelli said women shouldn’t call football games because they haven’t played the sport, his producer Andrew Salciunas pointed out that many male play-by-play commentators, such as Sean McDonough, were not exactly elite athletes themselves.
Salciunas: “I just want to give my rebuttal real quick. Do you think Sean McDonough ever played a down of football in his life?”
Missanelli: “I don’t know if he did or not. Um, but, I think that he… see, I would have to understand how Beth Mowins grew up, if she grew up following football and, um, you know, I don’t know. Sean McDonough as a guy is more in-tuned with football than a woman would be, in my opinion. Now, I know people are saying I can’t believe he’s saying that, he’s usually liberal. And usually I am, and I’m feeling kind of hinky bringing this up, I just don’t understand why there is the need for it.”
Missanelli: “It just to me sounds unnatural for her to be calling the NFL. Now, in college, it sounds sort of unnatural as well. But I can live with college. But this is prime time, Monday Night Football. I didn’t catch a lot of the game. Was she good? If she did a good job, then I’m wrong.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Missanelli announced on his show Thursday that the remarks had gotten him fired from his side-gig, on the local ABC affiliate Sports Sunday show. He said he had no one to blame but himself, but called the station’s response “harsh,” mentioned “haters” on social media, noted that you can’t say things like that “these days” and attempted to tie in ESPN’s response to Jemele Hill’s comments about Donald Trump.
“I said it to stimulate conversation, but I was wrong in saying it. And I walked the comment back almost immediately, if you remember Andrew.
“But what happened was, a lot of haters blew it up on social media, and I was dismissed from the Channel 6 gig.
“Now I have nobody to blame but myself. Did I think it was a harsh result? Yeah, I do think it was a harsh result. But I was the one who said it. There are some things you can’t do, these days.
What I didn’t realize is that Channel 6 is owned by Disney, which owns ESPN, and I had mentioned an ESPN broadcaster.
…
“Jemele Hill didn’t get fired [by ESPN]. I got popped. And there’s the irony.”
Discrimination against women in sports media has been a hot topic this week in the wake of Cam Newton’s disparaging comments to a female reporter, but the situation with Missanelli does not have to be complicated. The guy didn’t even listen to Mowins call a game before he criticized her right to be on air. Decrying the career advancement of a woman you know nothing about based solely on her gender is not cool. Missanelli learned that the hard way.
