Details are emerging about of the more surprising sports media firings in recent memory.
Former ESPN anchor Adnan Virk will pursue legal action against the company in the wake of his firing last week, the New York Post reported Monday. Sports Illustrated legal analyst Michael McCann wrote Tuesday that Virk will likely seek at least some portion of the money left on his contract, which according to the New York Post was a four-year deal worth seven figures.
Virk, who had been with ESPN since 2010, told USA Today Monday that he cannot comment on the situation “on the advice of legal counsel.”
His abrupt firing, which the New York Post broke shortly before Sunday’s Super Bowl, was due to allegedly leaking confidential information about ESPN’s Major League Baseball coverage — specifically the network’s decision not to carry a daily studio show this season.
Virk, an ESPN MLB studio host, is said to have leaked details of an internal conference call about ESPN’s plans for the upcoming baseball season to Awful Announcing. Per the Post, he went as far as to ask an ESPN MLB producer specific questions about said plans. Awful Announcing later broke the news that ESPN had abandoned the idea of a daily MLB studio show, and highlighted the company’s internal rationale for doing so. The Awful Announcing story was published four days before Virk’s February 1 firing.
It was not clear who at ESPN leaked the above details to the New York Post.
According to Sports Illustrated, Major League Baseball is not believed to have pressured ESPN into disciplining Virk.
