Ever heard of someone being fired for being straight? Jeremy Roenick has — he believes it happened to him.
According to a lawsuit filed Friday, the hockey commentator was canned by NBC Sports because of his heterosexuality.
Something else that didn’t help: He’s a Trump supporter.
As reported by Fox News, the NHL veteran recently appeared on the podcast Spittin’ Chiclets, during which he joked about having a sexual free-for-all with his wife and fellow NBC broadcaster Kathryn Tappen.
The three had taken a vacation to Portugal together.
Jeremy recalled someone at the resort asking about the trio’s situation:
“I play it off like we’re going to bed together every night, the three of us.”
“If it really came to fruition,” he noted, “that would really be good. But it’s never going to happen.”
Additionally, he remembered his wife and Kathryn looking “f—–g smokin'” in their swimsuits.
Because:
“A– and boobs everywhere. It’s great.”
He was suspended by NBC.
Later, they terminated his contract.
As relayed by Fox, Jeremy insists other NBC talking heads have made comments just as lewd but faced no similar consequences.
The lawsuit says that while Roenick was fired for his comments about Tappen, the network responded differently after NBC figure skating commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir made a comedy promo for the network’s streaming service that referred to a vulgar term for the vagina and other sexual remarks along with footage of Olympic figure skater Bradie Tennell.
What in the world??
There was minimal blowback:
Although U.S. Figure Skating said it didn’t “condone” the remarks, NBC Sports spokesman Dan Masonson stressed it was meant to be a comedic sketch.
“In retrospect, this sketch could have been completed with generic footage,” he said in reference to the footage of Tennell, the [New York Post] reported.
The post was later removed from Lipinski’s Instagram and anywhere else it had been posted, an NBC Sports spokesperson told USA Today.
Jeremy’s calling foul:
The suit alleges that when Roenick noted that Weir has used “colorful commentary” about skaters’ body parts while on air, his NBC supervisor Sam Flood said that Weir is “gay and can say whatever.”
“Mr. Roenick is the victim of double standards wrongfully asserted against him,” Scott William Clark, Roenick’s lawyer, told the Post. “A person’s career should not be thrown away by a company as Mr. Roenick’s career was with NBC. We are confident that the evidence that will be brought to light from this lawsuit will reveal the rampant disregard of Mr. Roenick’s rights.”
But wait — there’s more. Was a smokescreen at play?
As per the suit, Roenick suspects the real reason for his rocketing was a fondness for the President.
In fact, he’d wanted to speak at the 2016 Republican Convention.
Allegedly, he was informed it’d be a foot-shot:
Roenick claims that when he asked Flood if he could speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Flood said, “I’m not saying what you can do. You know who you work for. You work for NBC. That would not look good on your NBC record.”
Whatever the reason for his 86ing, one thing seems clear: The former sports star thinks it was bull, well, hockey.
If Jeremy was indeed a victim of discrimination over sexuality, I look forward to that coming out. It seems perfectly fitting we should have a guy lose his job because he’s straight; 2020’s been a kitchen-sink kind of year.
By that, I don’t mean lots of things have happened.
I mean the whole world is swirling the drain.
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Zooming Toward Xanadu: Petition Demands Trader Joe’s #Cancel Its ‘Racist’ Exotic Food Names
A Medical School Dissects Its Honor Society Because Grades May Be Racist
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