Ugh.Image: Getty Images
Ever since NBC, NFL analyst Tony Dungy tweeted a widely shared right-wing, transgender, and completely debunked talking point, much of the sports media has focused on Dungy’s story of aligning with anti-LGBT+ individuals and organizations. And rightly so. I was so outraged by Dungy’s transphobic comments that I immediately picked up my phone and called him on Twitter. (Dungy has since tweeted an apology.) But Dungy isn’t the only problematic member of NBC’s premier football crew. Both announcer Mike Tirico and analyst Matthew Berry have been accused of sexual harassment by their female colleagues in the past.
Mike Tirico’s story
According to Mike Freeman’s book ESPN: The Uncensored History, Tirico was accused of sexual misconduct by several women during his tenure at ESPN, including this truly disturbing allegation:
The woman was a production assistant and “is considered an upcoming talent,” and Tirico approached her at the party and said, “You’re the most beautiful woman around.” She walked away, but he continued to follow her around the party until she finally snapped : “Why don’t you fuck off? Get away from me.” As she and her friends got in their car and pulled out of the party, Tirico stepped in front of the car and stopped the woman. “You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and I think I’m in love with you,” Tirico said. She tried to roll up her window and get out, but Tirico stuck his hand in and tried to squeeze it between her thighs. She escaped, and the next morning, when she was on the ESPN When he saw the parking lot, he walked up to her and she expected him to apologize, but instead he said, “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
And that’s not the only allegation of Tirico’s appalling behavior:
In another story, a producer – who had had dinner with Tirico and his fiancé – was shocked to receive an email from him saying he wanted to sleep with her. Later, when staff went to a bar after a late-night coverage of the NCAA tournament, Tirico approached them and said, “I wish I was single. If it were me, I’d throw you on this table and fuck your brains out.” After she tried to excuse him for being drunk, he persisted, “I know you’re trying to screw me. So let’s go.” He later followed her down the freeway and unsuccessfully tried to get her to stop.
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Tirico was suspended by ESPN for three months and called the incidents described above “misunderstandings”. For its part, NBC has addressed his hiring by the network during the height of the #MeToo movement, though he has severed ties with other men accused of similar behavior, such as Matt Lauer and NBC political analyst Mark Halperin. NBC told the Hollywood Reporter:
“When we hired Mike in 2016, we were aware of the incidents from more than 25 years ago that were addressed by ESPN, his then employer, in 1991-92, for which he has apologized. Mike has repeatedly assured us that this behavior is a long time in the past and we have no evidence to the contrary during his tenure at NBC Sports.”
ESPN added that “these allegations were aggressively addressed with a lengthy suspension 25 years ago.”
This will definitely make all women who watch the NFL (47 percent of viewers, according to the NFL’s own research) feel a lot better about constantly shoving Tirico down our throats as the face of NBC Sports. Especially the journalistic integrity shown when he was chosen to interview Olympic snowboarder Shaun White about White’s own sexual harassment lawsuit, even though Tirico’s past was never mentioned by him or the network. Sports journalism is still journalism, folks, and the same rules still apply.
Allegations against Matthew Berry
As for Matthew Berry, he was one of the subjects of an ESPN Spotlight investigation (yes, that Spotlight) on sexual harassment. The Spotlight team reported:
“During her month-long audition [Jenn] Sterger said an executive showed her an issue of a Playboy magazine she was modeling for, and then she was taken to a strip club by Matthew Berry, who was interviewing as a staffer for The Fantasy Show.
The strip club outing wasn’t a formal ESPN activity, but it did follow a dinner with company employees and included several male job candidates. Sterger said she initially didn’t realize where they were going and she was teased for being uncomfortable there.
Sterger and Berry say they were both reprimanded for the strip club trip, but Sterger didn’t get a job at ESPN while Berry got one. ESPN said it selected another woman with more experience, although an email from the network at the time also said Sterger could have improved her chances by showing “more professional demeanor”. Berry is now ESPN’s Senior Fantasy Analyst and one of the most influential figures in fantasy sports.”
Per Spotlight, Berry admitted that going to the strip club wasn’t a wise move and that he regretted going. “He described a photo from that tour of duty pointing to Sterger’s breasts as ‘personally embarrassing and I didn’t mean to offend.'” Dude, YIKES.
If the NFL cares about women at all, they’ve done a terrible job of making it believable for everyone. As they launch the pink gear every October to ostensibly make people “aware” of breast cancer, they continue to make excuses to keep men who harm women on their teams and in their owners’ suites, and they certainly don’t seem to mind them even in the broadcast booths. And while women expect nothing less from Roger Goodell and co, it would be nice to see that sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace mattered to our male colleagues as well.
Instead, we’ll suffer through yet another NFL show and be reminded that allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, with the best will in the world, don’t “ruin the lives of men,” either on or off the field. And that when it comes to naming -isms in sport, sexism is the one left to women in sports journalism.
