Courtney Cronin on "Get Up." Courtney Cronin discusses JJ Redick’s f-bombs on “Get Up.”
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There have been many people who have criticized Los Angeles Lakers’ coach JJ Redick for dropping an F-bomb in his first press conference in that role. But Redick’s former ESPN colleague Courtney Cronin is an unexpected name to see joining that list.

She made those comments on Get Up Friday.

“How does JJ Redick maintain his composure when dealing with adversity? And I think you all know what I’m getting at here, is he dropping F-bombs the way that he did in his introductory press conference? That wasn’t a good look.

“I know some people look at that and say ‘Oh, it’s showing that he’s a normal person, he’s just like us.’ And I’m, you know, a firm believer, say what you want to say out there. But it wasn’t a good look for somebody in that sort of position.”

Cronin covers the Chicago Bears for ESPN and is starting her eighth season covering the NFL at that network following a newspaper career that included multiple beats at The Mercury-News in San Jose. She’s also a frequent panelist on Around The Horn and has made plenty of NFL Live (including as host), First Take, and Get Up appearances.

But back in March, Cronin garnered attention for something else. Thanks to her frustration with technical difficulties during an ESPN 1000 Chicago radio interview, she let out an “Alright, f*** this” on air.

Cronin later apologized for and explained her actions to Jeff Agrest of The Chicago Sun-Times:

“I had a moment of frustration with the audio issue we were having and I said something I shouldn’t have said, not realizing I had a live mic. We fixed it quickly, and the interview continued. Clearly five long days at the combine caught up with me and were the catalyst behind my sleep-deprived on-air flub.”

Audio issues happen and can certainly be frustrating. And F-bombs on unexpectedly live mics happen.

There also certainly is a difference between dropping an F-bomb you thought wasn’t going out over the air and dropping an F-bomb at a press conference that very clearly is being televised live. And Cronin’s “It wasn’t a good look for somebody in that sort of position” is perhaps the differentiator she sees here; perhaps she feels reporters can swear publicly and coaches can’t. But it’s still somewhat unexpected to see Cronin join the numerous ranks of the sports media language police considering her own moment.

It’s perhaps particularly unusual to see Cronin do that with comments on how that F-bomb from Redick “wasn’t a good look.” It’s also strange to see her saying that raised questions on how Redick would “maintain his composure when dealing with adversity.”

If dropping an F-bomb shows a loss of composure when dealing with adversity, Cronin certainly seemed to do the same thing this March.

As others noted, too, it seems a little odd to be so concerned about swearing from coaches and athletes in 2024 considering the long-established history there:

But it’s Cronin’s past radio incident that really stands out with this. And that came to mind immediately for many:

Of course, that incident was largely understandable. It didn’t appear to have drawn discipline for Cronin (at least not publicly), and there’s no particular ongoing problem with what she did. But it does seem odd that she’d be so condemnatory of Redick’s language so soon after her own language incident.

[Awful Announcing on X/Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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