In an email to USA TODAY reporter Michael McCarthy, ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards confirmed today that ESPN colleague Ron Franklin called her an “a–hole” during a production meeting before the ESPN Chick-fil-A Bowl telecast last Friday.
From USA TODAY:
The trouble started, she said, during a production meeting before Friday’s Chick Fil-A Bowl that was also attended by ESPN announcers Rod Gilmore and Ed Cunningham.
Edwards says she was talking with Gilmore about his wife being elected mayor of Alameda, California. After a few minutes, she said Franklin joined in the conversation and said, “Listen to me sweet baby, let me tell you something . . . ” with a condescending tone.
Edwards says she told Franklin not to address her like that. To which Franklin said, according to Edwards: “OK, then listen to me a-hole.”
She says she told Franklin she didn’t appreciate his attitude — and asked why he was stooping to such levels.
In her email to McCarthy, Edwards also noted that a unnamed colleague reported Franklin’s comments to ESPN management.
As reported here yesterday, after the incident ESPN attempted to replace Franklin for the Chick-fil-A telecast but because of the late notice, was unable to find a replacement. ESPN then removed Franklin from the Fiesta Bowl radio broadcast the next night, with Dave Lamont filling in.
Sunday ESPN Spokesman Josh Krulewitz emailed me the following statement about the situation:
“We made a late play-by-play change to the Fiesta Bowl radio team. We’re not going to get into specifics other than to say adhering to our personal conduct policies and showing respect for colleagues are of the utmost importance to our company and we take them extremely seriously.”
From talking to ESPN sources today, I’m getting the indication that Franklin will not be further disciplined by the network.
I’ve been told that ESPN’s attitude about the situation though could change depending on how much negative media coverage Franklin’s comments to Edwards elicit.
Franklin signed a two-year contract with ESPN last July and is scheduled to work Big 12 basketball games on Wednesdays and Saturdays this season.
4:22 pm on January 3rd, 2011
women announcers should not be doing college football or NFL games, PERIOD.
4:33 pm on January 3rd, 2011
To quote the great Dalton from Roadhouse
“is she?”
4:47 pm on January 3rd, 2011
I am soooo sick of these women who want to play in men’s sports but can’t handle being called an “a…hole.” Who cares?
5:35 pm on January 3rd, 2011
A sideline broad’s first question is always: “How do you feel……..” Yep, it’s all about drama, emotion, the only thing that drives them.
And across America, men are screaming at their TV’s: STFU you stupid bxxx!
5:39 pm on January 3rd, 2011
It was a conversation between Edwards and Gilmore about a mayoral race, not sports. Franklin butted in and tried to push her around like and she called him out. I bet your attitudes toward get you guys laid a lot.
6:16 pm on January 3rd, 2011
Regardless of the merits of having sideline reporters (all of whom are unnecessary, male or female), this is about a patently rude and stupid comment by someone with a good deal to lose. It seems incredibly bone-headed, which suggests there is more to this.
7:46 pm on January 3rd, 2011
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Edwards has been involved in a dispute. I remember former UK hoops coach, Gillepsie, had an issue too. Now it sounds like Edwards has been in the right both times but if we get a couple more ot these spats then I might wonder if she is all that innocent.
7:57 pm on January 3rd, 2011
I thought the same thing, MS State Fan
8:13 pm on January 3rd, 2011
can’t stand her anyway send her to cooking school
9:27 pm on January 3rd, 2011
has anyone else been called an a$$h0le and work before? My question is what did she say for Franklin to pipe in? clearly her and gilmore were not in agreement and he wanted to add something? it is sad that now in society that the man is automatically wrong and the woman is always right, because in my experience it is not the case in either sense!
10:39 pm on January 3rd, 2011
Somethings missing from this story. I think she’s leaving out some details intentionally. Did anyone see her hair at the game btw. Looked like she just steppes out of the early 90’s.
9:29 am on January 4th, 2011
She’s a hoe fo sho….
Maybe she is a a$$hole?!?!?!? so now if she THINKS she isn’t he is wrong! wow who the freak cares what she thinks and what they said they are adults and should act like it. Maybe he doesn’t like her at all and told her to not speak to him and she decided she was going to so he called her out for it.
9:57 am on January 4th, 2011
After dealing with this crowd she would be qualified to work in a zoo. On the other hand, the animals have more inteliigence.
10:34 am on January 4th, 2011
By the tone of the preceding comments, there are a lot of rude dudes out there who are clueless about human relations on or off the job. Hey boys, I bet your mother taught you better.
11:37 am on January 4th, 2011
What ! She can’t take a hit? How does she survive down on the sidelines its not all peaches and cream in the Vocal part of Football. Has she NEVER heard anyone called a A..Hole before, if not she kidding herself and all of us. Thicken up woman that applies to ESPN management TOO!! My mother Taught me to treat people like they treat you, thank you very much!!
12:39 pm on January 4th, 2011
I’m not a fan of sideline reporters.
Of course, I also don’t like most color commentators, a fair share of play-by-play announcers, and just about every single individual sitting in front of a camera and microphone at George Bodenheimer’s House of Workplace Sexual Harassment.
Bodenheimer’s Boys in Bristol just aren’t funny - and I don’t care what they’re telling each other. And the Fox Sports crowd is pre-pubescent.
These things so noted, I really hope someone busts Ron Franklin in the mouth and breaks his jaw. Any takers out there in the Big 12 Conference?
12:51 pm on January 4th, 2011
IRON MY SHIRT B_ _ _ _!! LOL
1:04 pm on January 4th, 2011
Obviously these responses indicate an alarming rise in the Neanderthal population of the USA. Hey, boys, get back in your caves and dream about one day getting a life. What a bunch of losers!
1:09 pm on January 4th, 2011
Give it a break guys, serioulsy ’sideline broads’, ‘bitch’, comments about her hair … What are you afraid of? She has every right to be offended.
Guy Gator Fan
1:11 pm on January 4th, 2011
FIRE THIS WOMAN!!
1:14 pm on January 4th, 2011
So, in short, Edwards was polite enough to call a woman with whom he disagreed “Sweet Baby” instead of “Asshole,” to which Edwards took offense, so then Franklin DID call her “Asshole.” Do I have this exchange correct?
And yet if he had simply called her, “Asshole,” there’s no issue here.
1:16 pm on January 4th, 2011
Wondering how often the sideline broads will hear the term ‘Sweetcakes’ hollered at them from the stands. Hmmm…..maybe we could get something started…..
1:18 pm on January 4th, 2011
No issue other than being a jerk at work, of course, which many people are.
1:55 pm on January 4th, 2011
Listening to a woman call a football game is like fingernails on a blackboard
2:03 pm on January 4th, 2011
She could probably level that old dude.
2:07 pm on January 4th, 2011
Send franklin to fox - only the cheney republicans talk like that.
4:02 pm on January 4th, 2011
Franklin should be punished much more for using (insulting) those kinds of words.
.
5:09 pm on January 4th, 2011
Funny how ESPN isn’t blowing this out of the water, let a coach or player fart wrong and you got Joe Schad jumping up and down on SportsCenter. just another example of ESPN hypocrisy. last but not least, get these damn whores off the sideline, this shot started when hannah storm got her feelings hurt because she couldn’t see guys dong in the locker room!
5:44 pm on January 4th, 2011
4:47 pm on January 3rd, 2011
“I am soooo sick of these women who want to play in men’s sports but can’t handle being called an “a…hole.” Who cares?”
_________________________________________
Huh? These aren’t football teammates. They are TV professionals sitting in a MEETING. I’ve been in the news business for 20 years, and wouldn’t think of insulting any co-worker that way. I sense a lot of you guys don’t work in an office, or you’re pretending you could get away with such rude behavior in an office, which I seriously doubt it.
5:50 pm on January 4th, 2011
Is this real life? Fired for calling someone an A-hole. wow, thin the skin of Americans it has become.
6:13 pm on January 4th, 2011
RF has (had) a dream job. How difficult is it to get along with co-workers? He’s a pompous jerk.
7:22 pm on January 4th, 2011
There are some sad posters in here. Professionals such as Erin Andrews and the like bring a lot to football broadcasts. You don’t call a woman an A-hole just like you don’t strike a woman. What the hell is wrong with you people. People in the media have a responsibility to act as professionals, not idiots. Franklin was wrong and was fired not for saying what he did but for not apologizing. Good riddance.
7:35 pm on January 4th, 2011
Unprofessional behavior. He deserved the reprimand. Here’s a question: Why is it OK for a man who never played football to call a game, but it’s not OK for a woman to do it?
8:09 pm on January 4th, 2011
Does one have to have their careers ended due a
mistake made, even when inappropriate. This
political correctness idealism is getting out of hand.
8:26 pm on January 4th, 2011
Franklin’s one of the best, but he’s definitely old school. Dumb flooz should be happy that he didn’t tell her to run along and make him a pie…after she gets off of her knees, of course.
8:54 pm on January 4th, 2011
was she his supervisor? no
was he her supervisor?no
Was the conversation about work?no
So now you have to agree with peers to the point you cant have an opinion about someone and tell them to their face?
Sweety , sweatheart, asshole are name calling but he said it to her face and they were still able to work without incident so get over yourself b##ch
9:04 pm on January 4th, 2011
Perhaps an excess of political correctness, perhaps not. What is more telling, though, is the tenor of most of the comments here: nasty, vicious, defensive, not all that civil, not all that thoughtful. Is this how we want to teach our kids how to work things out?
9:30 pm on January 4th, 2011
According to the stories, she didn’t go to management, a third party who was offended by the comment did - so why are you picking on her?
9:57 pm on January 4th, 2011
Bring back Ron Franklin and others who actually know about how to announce on tv and radio and know about the sport(s). Fire the “sideline” reporterettes who mindlessly “report” on things they don’t understand, use their looks for their jobs, and then complain when they are accepted by colleagues (and get some ribbing, jokes, etc.)
10:50 pm on January 4th, 2011
These two (2) idiotic ESPN reporters (male and female) are the very reason I cancelled all of my ESPN channels and subscribed to Court TV. You get to see all of the stars there sooner, or later….
11:10 pm on January 4th, 2011
Let’s see who has the “balls” to say this is wrong.ESPN you should be ashamed,who will stand up?Ditka?,T.J?,or maybe Suzy,she handled the Namath situation,Edwards would probably had Broadway Joe arrested for sexual assault,Wonder if Meredith ever called Cossell an A-Hole,thats right they did not work for ESPN,Next we will have top ten dresses of the week,and all who do not stand up,should wear one,What a shame!!!
12:57 am on January 5th, 2011
Ron Franklin? Really? Who is he and why do any of you give a rat’s arse?
5:48 am on January 5th, 2011
Now write tell all book and make a million or two.meanwhile friend mine goes to Afghanistan gets hurt cant have sex with his wife ever again,can barely buy a coke.
7:45 am on January 5th, 2011
If it was a guy in this “conversation”. It would have been a little different. In a casual post production meeting “meeting” this Ron Franklin guy(?) would be casually forewarned, “Show me that attitude again and I will knock you the F#@^ OUT. Take the apron off baby and throw some knuckles. You can always get your nails fixed later. Peace out.
8:59 am on January 5th, 2011
bake a pie? after she gets off her knees? dude, your “relationships” with women would be great fodder for some psych class. or some physiology class. in my experience men who feel the need to denigrate women are often compensating for their own….shortcomings.
12:51 pm on January 5th, 2011
This is really sick. He did not say anything close to that should get him fired.
This political correctness is getting way out of hand. If women wish to work in locker rooms that is fine. But they need to be a bit more tolerant of the locker room talk.
Personally I would not have used the words he chose but he did not use profanity or run his hand over any part of her body. So were his words in poor taste, if she did not like it, then obviously they were. But did his words warrent a firing, hell no!
4:38 pm on January 6th, 2011
I must agree with “U R Idiots” that, well, you guys on here are. However, I think it is fascinating that this person equated treating women well with getting ‘laid.’ Really? Is that why you think men should be respectful of women? Is that all they have to give?
And by the way, “whocares”, no one is saying his words warranted (notice the a in there) a firing. He wasn’t fired.
6:56 pm on January 10th, 2011
So many idiots posting on here, it is not about women wanting to be like men, it’s about treating people with respect. None of you would like it if someone at work talked to you in this manner. It makes me sick to read these comments. You all morons would be happy with the status Quo of the good old boy network.
12:40 pm on January 20th, 2011
Franklin is entirely justified. “Sweet baby”, like “baby cakes” is a non-sexist term used by both sexes with both sexes as a term of endearment. It could have as easily been used between two male or between two female broadcasters.
No matter - the female in this case decided to cop the victim role and play her sexist card, whereupon Franklin rightfully responded with more appropriate vigor.
This was a non-incident between two professionals having a heated disagreement. Glad Franklin is suing…
1:31 am on May 23rd, 2011
The tone of some of these comments make me wonder if anyone’s ever had a real job. Every employee contract has specific guidelines regarding personal conduct. His initial tone was inappropriate considering he was not a party to the conversation, and he took it one step further by calling her a-hole. It’s a reportable incident even if he would’ve said it to a man.