ESPN’s firing of on-camera personality Adnan Virk could reportedly end up sparking a whole lot of legal wrangling.
According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Virk is preparing to take legal action against his former employer after they fired him on Friday with the belief that he had been leaking confidential information to other media outlets. Despite signing a seven-figure contract extension with the network recently, ESPN is not paying Virk any severance.
ESPN believes Virk is specifically behind a leak to the website Awful Announcing, who reported that Major League Baseball was handwaving some violations of contractual obligations in terms of the required number of in-season MLB-centric studio shows in exchange for moving Sunday Night Baseball’s start time to 7 p.m. ESPN believes Virk tipped off a conference call about the Sunday night situation, and asked several questions to a producer that specifically matched what later appeared in the Awful Announcing report.
Sources close to Virk believe the punishment is overly harsh and unexpected, feeling that a suspension would have been more reasonable. ESPN, however, would argue that all its employees take compliance training regarding such scenarios, and it is made clear that termination could result if company policy is violated.
Virk is also said to have failed to cooperate with an investigation into media leaks. This looks poised to become an ongoing situation for both parties.
