Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl – This is pretty funny…definitely wrong, but funny.
Longtime ESPN announcer Ron Franklin was pulled off ESPN’s Saturday Fiesta Bowl radio broadcast by ESPN executives after an incident involving the veteran broadcaster and ESPN-TV sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards.
Scheduled to work on the ESPN-TV broadcast of the Chick-fil-A Bowl Friday, Franklin and Edwards were part of a production meeting before the game that was also attended by ESPN announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore. During the meeting, the subject of Gilmore’s wife Marie being elected Alameda (CA) mayor came up.
As Gilmore, Cunningham and Franklin discussed the subject, Edwards tried to join the conversation.
When she did, Franklin said to her, “Why don’t you leave this to the boys, sweetcakes.â€
Edwards responded to Franklin by saying, “don’t call me sweetcakes, I don’t like being talked to like that.â€
Franklin then said, “okay then, a–hole.â€
After the meeting Edwards reported Franklin’s comments to ESPN management.
Once ESPN college football coordinating producer Ed Placey confirmed Franklin’s comments to Edwards with Cunningham, ESPN executives made an attempt to pull Franklin off the Chick-fil-A Bowl broadcast the same day. Because of late notice, no replacement for Franklin was found and the longtime play-by-play announcer called the game – without incident – with Cunningham and Edwards.