Harold Reynolds Fired

Harold Reynolds has been fired from ESPN and Baseball Tonight for sexual harrassment. He allegedly gave an "inappropriate hug" to a female PA.

I find it surprising that Reynolds would do something like this, because his on-camera demeanor seems so laid-back. But ESPN takes such incidents very seriously these days after the release of "ESPN: The Uncensored History," in which New York Times sportswriter Michael Freeman revealed a network and work environment rife with sexual discrimination and harassment. An odd aspect of the book is that it portrays nice guy Mike Tirico, who like Reynolds seems very mild-mannered, as one of the lead villains.

It's always the people you least expect, or perhaps it's the people who think they can get away with it. I mean, if Sean Salisbury got in trouble for this, no one would blink an eye. But maybe he's a great guy in real life. There's a big disparity between someone's on-camera persona and their off-screen behavior. Maybe Reynolds is a good guy who made a mistake, but something seems fishy.

I remember listening to the Herd radio show on ESPN radio a few months back, and Cowherd was arguing with callers who objected to his depiction of all NBA players as sleazy adulterers. People would call in with names like David Robinson, he's not sleazy right? Cowherd then said that at ESPN, the guys who seem like jerks are actually the best guys, and the guys who seem nicest on camera were the ones you had to watch out for. Too bad he didn't name names at the time.