Philadelphia sports radio host Mike Missanelli says he lost a job due to his comments made about ESPN using a woman as a play-by-play announcer on “Monday Night Football.”
Missanelli, who is a host on 97.5 The Fanatic, said on his radio show during the week that he was fired from his role on 6abc’s “Sports Sunday” because of his comments.
Back in September, Missanelli, while admitting that he did not really hear Beth Mowins call the Broncos-Chargers “Monday Night Football” game for ESPN in Week 1, voiced complaints about her getting the gig in the first place.
Here’s how his conversation with producer Andrew Salciunas went during their radio show on Sept. 12. Transcription and audio provided by Crossing Broad and Philly.com.
“I don’t know why the sporting world needs a female play-by-play person on an NFL game,” Missanelli said on the show. “Here’s my rationale for that: women don’t grow up playing football. Now, I understand that women also don’t grow up playing baseball and that Jessica (Mendoza) whatever her name is does a really good job, not as a play-by-play person, but as an analyst.”
“Do you think Sean McDonough ever played a down of football in his life?” Salciunas responded, referring to ESPN’s main “Monday Night Football” announcer.
“Sean McDonough as a guy is more in-tuned with football than a woman would be, in my opinion,” Missanelli said. “It just to me sounds unnatural for her to be calling the NFL.”
Missanelli again repeated that he didn’t understand why there was a “need” for Mowins to call the game.
Missanelli’s argument really lacked coherence and didn’t really make sense. If he’s saying he personally doesn’t prefer the way Mowins sounds, that would be one thing; people have different preferences. But wondering why there is a need for this makes little sense. ESPN never said there was a “need” to have Mowins do the game, they obviously just feel she is talented and qualified. And then to make the argument that a female shouldn’t broadcast a game because they didn’t play (which is a possibly inaccurate assumption) is not a good argument because there are so many male announcers who didn’t play either.
Missanelli did take responsibility for his comments, though he said he believed the firing was a harsh penalty.
“Now I have nobody to blame but myself,” Missanelli said. “Did I think it was a harsh result? Yeah, I do think it was a harsh result.”
Missanelli announcing the firing comes the same week that Cam Newton apologized for being sexist towards a female reporter asking him football questions at a press conference.
