Steve Phillips Fired: Scandal Aside, You Don't Embarrass ESPN

ESPN went ahead and fired Steve Phillips Sunday. But ESPN did not fire Steve Phillips for what he had done (read: Brooke Hundley); they fired the sports analyst for what he had become -- an embarrassment to ESPN. And ESPN didn't even bother to hold a major press conference when they fired him. ESPN first tweeted the information on Twitter Sunday. Not via a press release or an ESPN blog -- Twitter. The mighty Steve Phillips, former General Manager of the New York Mets and ESPN analyst, reduced to a 140-character brush-off.

Steve Phillips was fired even before his one-week "leave of absence" was complete. The statement read that Phillips was fired because 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."

For those unfamiliar with corporatespeak, Steve Phillips was fired for being an embarrassment to the company. Of course, the cause of the embarrassment, his summer sex fling with 22-year-old ESPN production assistant Brooke Hundley and the alleged stalking scandal that followed, was not mentioned. There wasn't even the obligatory lines about the terrible, painful ordeal his family must have yada yada yada blah blah blah (send tweet). Steve Phillips was relegated to the low-key (literally) dismissal.

Not that he didn't deserve being fired. Far from it. To be fair, as an employee of the sports network, Steve Phillips is a highly visible representative. His attraction of negative publicity for the past week has no doubt had the public relations department at ESPN threatening seppuku, especially after the past couple months.

Whether it was criticism that got them involved or not, ESPN announced that they were launching an internal investigation into the Erin Andrews peephole video situation. They did this days after the scandal made national headlines and speculation was running rampant that the peephole videos taken of a naked Erin Andrews, ESPN's popular sideline reporter, had to have been an inside job, captured by someone with access to her itinerary. Although it should have been the first thing they announced besides their support of Erin Andrews in tracking and prosecuting the video voyeur, it became part of their damage control later.

But the Erin Andrews and Steve Phillips scandals may have an adverse effect, such as the seeming overreaction that the sports network had to Bob Griese's inappropriate comment during the Ohio State-Minnesota football game on Saturday. During a promo for NASCAR, sports analyst Chris Spielman, while recapping the Top 5 drivers in the Sprint Cup points championship, asked, Where's Juan Pablo Montoya?" Bob Griese said, "Out having a taco."

Bob Griese apologized before the game was over, but ESPN decided that one apology wasn't enough, issued their own statement, said they were aware of Griese's comment, had "spoken to" him about the comment, and reassured the public that Bob Griese would make another apology later that same day.

The common thread in all of these scandals is the company embarrassment factor. Naked Erin Andrews became embarrassing after a few days, especially when others were pointing out that an ESPN employee may have been the peephole video voyeur (but was not, as it turned out). Philandering (and married) Steve Phillips and his sex romp with Brooke Hundley became enough of an embarrassment after a week of alleged stalking and cyber-stalking headlines, divorce headlines, and past infidelity headlines. Ethnic stereotyping became an immediate embarrassment and, even though an apology was offered, it wasn't enough for the now apparent gun-shy ESPN. ESPN went from not moving quickly enough to moving quickly and overcompensating.

Firing Steve Phillips was the right thing to do, but being the right thing to do is only coincidental. It was only after his scandal made Steve Phillips an embarrassment to ESPN that they severed ties with him. All of the incidents -- the Erin Andrews video, the Steve Phillips scandal, and Bob Griese's comment -- should have been recognizable embarrassments from the very beginning, but two of those did not seem to embarrassing enough to do the right thing with alacrity. Only the Griese comment seemed to meet that criteria.

Perhaps ESPN should look into firing a few people who are in charge of their public relations as well.

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Sources:

NYDailyNews.com