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Veteran ESPN sportscaster Ron Franklin has been fired after he reportedly made sexist comments to sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards, calling her in a condescending tone “sweet baby” or “sweetcakes,” according to different accounts, as well as an “a**hole.” The termination follows a media firestorm yesterday when word of the incident, which had happened during a staff meeting on Friday, leaked. It forced Franklin, a 20-year ESPN veteran who called mostly college football and basketball games, to issue a public apology. That wasn’t enough. “Based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him,” an ESPN spokesman said in a statement.
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ridiculous dinosour
Yes, she is. A whining dinosaur from the past.
You’re the dinosaur.
No, she’s the eye candy. If she thinks she is there to legitimately discuss the sport, or to be taken seriously by any of the men watching at home, she’s living in a fantasy world. Don’t agree? Head down to your local sports bar, and listen to the comments anytime these Sideline Sweethearts come on screen. Oh there will be a lot of discussion going on, but none of it will be about anything she says.
Awesome.
What a buffoon, pissing away a dream gig.
Wow, and why does ESPN think sports fans will tolerate female announcers only?
Or sexist male announcers?
I love how when ESPN gets a bunch of guys in a room for Pardon The Interruption, and they get Sir Charles to read “I am a dumbass” off a teleprompter, it’s all in good fun and nobody gets all butt-hurt. Everybody gets the joke. Sir Charles isn’t pulling the race card and getting people fired because he’s a black man being made fun of. But then you throw Jeannine Edwards onto the sidelines and somebody makes a teasing comment and SOUND THE ALARMS AND BURN THE BRAS!! It’s FIRING TIME!
Nowhere in the comment “I am a dumbass” whatsoever do I see a reference to race. Are you just pulling crap out of your ass?
Now, the “teasing comment” (“sweet baby”, “sweetcakes”) isn’t just some random remark. It’s a specific comment on Edward’s sex; it’s a comment that degrades Edwards for her femaleness.
because most of it’s audience is sexist. Women dont belong on the football field or calling a game. Straight up.
exactly, cant stand women who act like they know what they r talkin bout in football. especially since most of them have never played the game an most likely got the job beacause of their looks. dont take offense to “sweety” or whatever it was. thats being a bitch. lol but i admit he shouldnt of called her a name after that . thats unprofessional.
I hope you never spawn daughters.
So dog killers like Michael Vick are okay, but “sexist talk” is not. I feel sorry for dogs, then.
So were you hibernating in a cave with grizzly bears while Michael Vick SERVED HIS PRISON TIME for what he did? Get a life, troll!
Dude, really? You’re an idiot. Pretty sure Ron Franklin prefers to get fired from a job, in which he should’ve been retired from years ago, than go to jail or being sued for sexual harassment WHICH ESPN probably saved him from.
Mike Tirico had a sexual harrassment case dismissed in the mid 90s and he was fine. It took Harold Reynolds third harrassment case to get him the boot. But let’s boot the 68 year old out right away. Jeannie needs to get a sense of humor. Ron Franklin pulled a Ron Burgundy but the man is awesome.
LEAVE RON FRANKLIN ALONE!!!!
Not the first time he has been rude or made these types of comments. Ron deserved to be fired loooong ago. How’s this for a theory? Join this century and treat EVERYONE in the workplace with respect.
No one is saying that killing dogs is ok, but can we all take half a second to remember that Mr. Vick has served his time in prison for his crime, and in the absence of any further criminal activity is more than entitled to live his life and pursue whatever LEGAL dream he chooses to.
By serving his time he paid his debt to the criminal justice system. That doesn’t extend to the personal opinions of those who will always regard him as a dirtbag. What he did will always follow him. As well it should.
Yes, Chandler, there will always be those whining morons whose “brains” are on an endless loop over some non-event from years –and decades– ago, not realizing that nobody cares.
Vick didn’t commit any “crime.” A few pooches got mishandled. He should have been given a written citation and made to clean up the mess.
And the people still whining about it need to get a life.
Next stop, Faux News…where the dregs of humanity with zero credibility usually wash up.
No, he’s going to MSNBC, who NO ONE WATCHES! Olbermann has ZERO credibility and ZERO class! Get a clue, moron!
Stop screaming please. It’s unclassy. Thank you.
You are so right on about this one!
If Janine Edwards wanted to play with the ‘big boys,’ she would come out with a statement saying something like, “it was in the heat of the moment and I really didn’t take his comments seriously. I’m too busy to worry about what Franklin said.”
Now, it looks like ESPN has to go overboard to look out for female reporters because they can’t handle a task that was traditionally handled by men.
Let’s remember, according to the reports, after Mr. Franklin called her “sweetcakes” in the meeting, Ms. Edwards immediately pushed back at his sexist comment. What got Mr. Franklin in trouble is that instead of immediately apologizing, he doubled down and fired back another derogatory word at her. Sexism nonewithstanding, it was incredibly unprovoked and unprofessional on Mr. Franklin’s part.
Yes, because being verbally abused is the same as ‘playing with the big boys’. Maybe if this guy wanted to play with the big boys, he should have watched his mouth.
‘Playing with the big boys’ means knowing when to ignore provocative comments and make Franklin look like the small person he is by not acknowlegding how small a person Franklin is.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Let’s apply your logic to the civil rights movement: To “play with the big boys” aka the white majority, blacks should have shut up about being treated like second-class citizens so that they can prove just how “small” the whites are. However, shutting the hell up rather than staging peaceful protests, sit-ins, and strikes would not have changed the fabric of society, would not have addressed racism, and certainly would not have overturned segregation laws.
Your answer for sexual harassment is to keep quiet to keep the moral high ground. The sad thing is you are so backwards and you don’t even know it.
Apples and Oranges. Nice try though.
“Playing with the big boys” is soon to be a thing of the past. If you haven’t noticed, the “big boys” (rich white guys) are going down– they got to run things for a long ass time, and they screwed it all up. The rest of us are choosing to no longer tolerate their obnoxious, narcissistic, sexist and racist behavior.
So, “On the Pulse”, you feelin’ the end yet? People aren’t respecting you and doing what you say anymore, huh? It’s because the patriarchal white man reign is taking it’s last breaths. Good riddance.
The ‘rich white guys’ created ESPN. ‘Patriarchal white man reign’ is hilarious. Have fun with your masters in Women’s Studies courtesy of Cal Berkeley, circa 1973. You finally found a mainstream forum to vent in.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been pushed down by the rich white guys, too. Maybe it’s because I’m not jewish. See, I can play the blame game too!
gee, racist much?
And Cal Berkley circa 73? I wasn’t even born yet, grandpa. And btw, rich white guys may have created ESPN but they wouldn’t have anything to put on the air if it weren’t for the brothers.
Somehow I doubt you’re being kept down by rich jewish guys– you’re being kept down because you’re probably sexist and racist. Either that or you just got a crap personality.
Oh shut up, COPS and Maury wouldn’t have anything to put on if not for the brothers either so lets climb down off the cross.
You may want to look into a dictionary (I recommend dictionary . com) to understand what the word ‘racist’ means. Unless, of course you were calling yourself out as racist what with the use of ‘white guys’ and ‘brothers.’ If you hate black people and white guys, that’s your problem. But please don’t put it on this forum.
Agreed solong. It’s high time for “Patriarchal (insert your minority here) reign”. Stand aside obnoxious, racist, narcissistic, and sexist white people! You hear us Mr. President!?… wait…
You can’t be serious! Please go back to your cave, caveman! Go bonk some heads of the fairer sex with a big stick while you’re at it!
At least he did’nt show his ass, then the shit would really be deep.
I don’t get it, how is calling a broad sweet baby equal sexist. Has the world gone mad
because it’s creepy that’s why. eeew.
Please continue to live in your self-imposed “Twilight Zone” far away from us normal people. The workplaces of the world thank you in advance!
I wish somebody would call me sweecakes. :/
Somebody most likely would if you were a woman and that somebody was a sexist pig who somehow forgot to leave the 1950s mindset behind. But judging by your name, Gil, you’ve probably got a schlong. And well, hate to break it to ya, but you just don’t fit the usual profile for sexual harassment.
This ESPN douche-y dude had to go. What a sexist dinosaur, one of the ‘good ol boys’ to be sure.
At least he didn’t call her a “smelly pirate hooker” who needs to go “home to Whore Island.”
Nope. This twit, lacking the humor of Ron Burgandy, followed up by calling the woman “asshole” — how original. talk about a passive-aggressive Neanderthal. Hope he has fun “resurrecting” his career on cable channel 72 in Dayton! Just retire already you sexist windbag.
I’m a woman who works in the industry who wouldn’t mind being called the following at work:
Sweetcakes
Sweet baby
Ms. Sexy
Hot Stuff
Broad
We really need to lighten up. I’ll never listen or watch Edmoundson again. What an upright bitch.
Yeah right! Nice try. I can smell the stench from a mile away. A man wrote this post. Prick!
Your reply is completely humorless and overzealous, a clear indicator that you are indeed a woman, Lame-o. You may pass.
Ha ha. Not. By your standards, you must be a woman too.
You’re entitled not to be offended by those names, but of course some of your female colleagues might consider you a door mat and lose respect for you. In contrast, Edwards (who is Edmoundson?) is also equally entitled to be offended by any of these names. Arguably, your offense at her offense proves you also need to lighten up.
I also note that your list did not include “asshole.”
Jo Anne, you’re my kinda broad sweetcakes.
Esepcially if they are overpaying you to look like a hooker off the streets. They can call you whatever they want honey! haha
LOL
Counting down the minutes until Jeannine pops up all “shaken and traumatized” for a segment on The View, then bails on ESPN for her own show on OWN.
Here’s the thing: Women want equality in the workplace, but confuse their desire to be taken seriously by OTHERS, with taking THEMSELVES too damn seriously. Rather than get all bent out of shape over what was clearly a tongue-in-cheek comment (I took it as “OK, you don’t want to be called ‘sweetcheeks’? Then I’ll call you what I call my guys, ‘a$$hole’. There ya go, you’re one of the guys now.”), and get the guy fired; the best, most “empowering” thing Jeannine could have done is GIVE HIM SH*T RIGHT BACK. Take a dig at him about his age! SOMETHING!!! Guys love it and it’s how we communicate with our friends. We all harass the living hell out of one another. If anything, it would actually earn her respect among the guys because it shows she can hold her own against them without running to the playground monitor. Instead, she pulled the typical politically correct bullsh*t, and rather than earn respect, she earned further resentment for herself and all “working women”.
But, good luck finding anyone other than the Chelsea Handlers or Sarah Silvermans of the world who would actually be able to detect a shred of humor in a sentence if it walked up and slapped them in the face. Everybody has to get sued, fired, make public apologies, blablabla. If the boys in the sandbox play too rough, go get a hosting gig on Oxygen.
Oh baby, you’re getting me all hot and bothered.
This guy was the voice of Saturday night during college football season. I’d watch anything he covered even when it was a blow-out. Get those girls back into skirts and cheering rather than costing a brilliant man his job! Bad move ABC! It will hurt your ratings.
I’m a little tired of the PC mentality being displayed in the USA. Why does Torico get a slight slap on the hand for his inappropriate advances off the air?
Stupidity is in the air…Is this article link to drudge.
Ron Franklin had already been demoted by ESPN before this incident happened (you can look it up, Franklin was ticked off that he was moved off major college football games on Saturdays), and this clearly (and conveniently) enabled them to fire him outright.
I’m not condoning what Franklin did, either — he deserves to go — but at the same time Janeane Edwards is an atrocious sideline reporter. She’s mostly known for doing interviews during horse racing and ESPN has tried to shoe-horn her into other sports, mostly to negative results. She’s no young “spring chicken” either (she looks like she’s pushing 50) so to have her make a federal case out of this would be outrageous…or her simply trying to get attention.
You should be ashamed of yourself. With all the sexist comments on this thread, you’ve gotta throw in the ageist crap too.
P.S. Franklin’s pushing 70. Do the math, dum-dum.
Watch full video at: http://ron-franklin.notlong.com
Wow, just wow. May the real God be with you.
And, ahem, may I point out that you are also a Deadline reader.
If this were The Today Show, GMA, or the evening news, that would be one thing, but it’s ESPN and that is how sports guys talk to each other. If one of the girls wants to be be one of the guys, then you have to roll with the punches.
Sports guys call each other sweetie? Wow, that’s a little disturbing.
Daughter, Sister, or Wife of Bam Bam: “The guys keep calling me sweet cakes and sweet stuff at work, hmmph!”
Bam Bam: “Gotta roll with the punches, honey. Gotta roll with the punches.”
I do recall Obama calling a reporter “Sweetie” during the 2008 campaign. Didnt hurt him that much.
So I’m guessing you read this to comment on it, so I’ll just refer you to your own post.
Only a frustrated conservative has to bash news channels on a sports post
I’m with u. That’s how guys talk. But ur right its ESPN. That’s one of the most visible corporations on earth. You can’t afford that publicity. Image is everything. Its not just a camera in a locker room. Its a fortune 500 business. And that’s how the dudes at ESPN think of it. As they should.
This is what happens when feminism and political correctness are the new dominant religion.
Here is her version of the story…
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.”
Now let’s assume that she’s being 100% honest with this… (while we know that there are three sides to every story)
Let’s replace Ms. Edwards with a young man and Ron Franklin remains. Mind you… Franklin is 68 yrs old. Ms. Edwards is considerably younger. If the players were two men and the older man said to the younger man, “Listen to me young whippersnapper, let me tell you something…” and the younger man said that he didn’t appreciate being talked to in that manner and the older man said “OK, then listen to me a-hole.” Mind you they’re BOTH men… how would the reaction be? The younger guy would probably say, “Screw you Mr AARP” or probably call him an asshole back… either way I sincerely doubt that they would be on the damn news about the situation. Also I can almost guarantee that no one is getting fired behind the situation.
So we have a group of people who ‘say’ that they want to be treated equally… well this is the environment that we’re in. It’s a male dominated environment. Why is it that for two men to be in the situation they’d probably be pissed at each other and then talk shit to each other… or something like that… but when the other party is a woman the rules change?
The ONLY reason that this individual was fired was that he said something ‘Not Nice’ to a woman. Had the same been said to a man it would be a non story. Are not we supposed to be equal? Why are we not seeing equal treatment?
Lol. Your attempt at creating a scenario analogous to the real thing is pretty pathetic. Really? You think that a man would address another man as a “young whippersnapper”? Get real.
Where I have beef is that you seem to think that two guys verbally shit-talking each other is the same as a guy making sexual/sexist remarks to a woman. Yes, it’s a male-dominated field. And yes, when a woman comes into the picture, you can shit-talk her like you do the boys, but NO, you cannot make derogatory statements referring to her sex. Women should not be objectified nor made to feel less than in the workplace. That’s just standard decency, and exactly why current laws reflect that.
P.S. It is precisely because Franklin treated Edwards “unequally” that he got the shaft. Got it?
lol… Let me get this straight, it’s ‘pathetic’ for the method of showing the ridiculousness of a situation to be an analogy? Surely you jest.
Of course a man would address another younger man as a young whippersnapper. The word exists. It may not be in ‘your’ lexicon but there are those who have used it.
Beef? smh…
There was this HUGE push for ‘equality’… equal treatment, equal rights, equal (insert term here). Now when a situation arises in which a man treats a woman in a manner that would be at worst condescending had he treated a man similarly he gets fired. Fired? Basically we’re firing men for being condescending? I find that to be incredible. Either we’re equal or we aren’t.
Franklin got the shaft because we live in a world in which companies are more afraid of lawsuits and bad publicity than they are of common sense. Oh well… it is what it is.
Dear Uncontainable Spirit of the 1950s,
You are too funny.
Keep it up!
Thank you… I think I will.
Oh, quit whining, boys! You’re still in charge! Just remember that when you’re at work, you’re supposed to be civilized, polite, respectful. If you think it’s cool to call someone an asshole at work, then you need a manners refresher. Evolve!
Yes, you have told it like it is.
If a male complains that a senior employee called him an asshole, they might both get a scolding, but not fired!
Is there any more to the story?
You are all a bunch of bunny’s, babes, sweetcakes etc. Such a shame that it is looked at as derogatory. You know ww love all you women.
Now be a dear and grab me a coffee on your way out of the office would ya?
No room for women on the sidelines. Just wish they could accept it rather than trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
Pssst… Mad Men is just a show… It is not real…
Please turn off the TV set and return to earth.