Steve Phillips may seem radioactive, but at least one outlet is apparently interested in the former ESPN MLB analyst.
According to the New York Daily News, Phillips’ agent Steve Lefkowitz says that there have been “ongoing discussions with a TV outlet interested in Phillips.” Additionally, Phillips remains under contract with an unnamed company that did not drop him following his well-publicized affair with an ESPN production assistant.
Lefkowitz said his plan is to “restore Steve to the level, professionally, he had reached,” but conceded that he does not expect that to happen “overnight.”
An unnamed television executive told the Daily News that hiring Phillips could be a potential liability. “Someone with Steve’s issues could be putting the company at risk. Now you’re talking about potential lawsuits and potentially millions of dollars on the line.”
Phillips was famously fired from ESPN after having an affair with one of the network’s production assistants. Currently, he is “in a rehabilitation facility where, presumably, he’s being treated for sex addiction.”
Others sports broadcasters have come back after similar controversies. In 1999, NBC rehired Marv Albert, less than two years his firing over a sex scandal. Harold Reynolds was fired by ESPN in ’06 for sexual harassment, but resurfaced on TBS in ’08 and MLB Network in ’09.
Source: New York Daily News, via Sports Media Journal
