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Mike Missanelli Admitted That He Was Fired From His 6 ABC Gig For Comments About Beth Mowins

By Kyle Scott

Published: Oct 6th, 2017 · 12:29 PM EDT

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Mike Missanelli took calls on the Cam Newton fiasco yesterday. This is a topic that’s right in his wheelhouse. Perhaps it is his wheelhouse, since he had to admit that he was fired from his 6 ABC show because of comments he made about ESPN broadcaster Beth Mowins a few weeks ago:

“Now, full disclosure, I gotta tell this, because I haven’t told it, and no one has asked me about it… but I had a regular appearance on Channel 6 on Sports Sunday. And I had made a comment, if you remember, three weeks ago about Beth Mowins, and what I was trying to do, actually, was trying stimulate conversation, and sometimes you get trapped into trying to stimulate conversation on touchy subjects. So what I said was why do we feel the need to have a female play-by-play announcer. Now, I said it to stimulate conversation, but I was wrong in saying it. And I walked the comment back almost immediately, if you remember, Andrew. I said I was out of line for saying that. But what happened was a lot of haters blew it up on social media, and I was dismissed from the Channel 6 gig. Now I have nobody to blame but myself. Did I think it was a harsh result? Yeah, I do think it was a harsh result. But I was the one who said it, so I took the heat basically. And there are some things you can’t do these days. So I accept full responsibility. And I was out. Just like that. Because what I didn’t realize is that Channel 6 is owned by Disney, which owns ESPN, and I had mentioned an ESPN broadcaster. And I had a lot of fun doing that show, and I thought it was a good show. But that’s the way it goes.”

His comment about “trying to stimulate conversation” goes exactly to our critique of sports talk radio in general– saying something you don’t think or mean just to drum up calls. Now whether or not Mike actually meant it or not is a different story, but he co-hosted the 6 ABC show with Jamie Apody, which probably didn’t help things.

Here’s what Missanelli said about Mowins before later walking it back:

Missanelli: “I don’t know why the sporting world needs a female play-by-play person on an NFL game. And I know that sounds harsh, and I just want to know what is the reason for it? Do you have any thoughts on that, Andrew?”

…

Missanelli: “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 whatever her name is does a really good job, not as a play-by-play person, but as an analyst.

Salciunas: “Jessica Mendoza.”

Missanelli: “Mendoza, yes. So I don’t know if I’m out of line by presenting that. I’m just curious as to why we need to have a woman call an NFL game. Now I know she’s called many college games, uh, I don’t know, maybe I should quit while I’m ahead.”

Salciunas: “I just want to give my rebuttal real quick. Do you think Sean McDonough ever played a down of football in his life?”

Missanelli: “I don’t know if he did or not. Um, but, I think that he… see, I would have to understand how Beth Mowins grew up, if she grew up following football and, um, you know, I don’t know. Sean McDonough as a guy is more in-tuned with football than a woman would be, in my opinion. Now, I know people are saying I can’t believe he’s saying that, he’s usually liberal. And usually I am, and I’m feeling kind of hinky bringing this up, I just don’t understand why there is the need for it.”

…

Missanelli: “It just to me sounds unnatural for her to be calling the NFL. Now, in college, it sounds sort of unnatural as well. But I can live with college. But this is prime time, Monday Night Football. I didn’t catch a lot of the game. Was she good? If she did a good job, then I’m wrong.”

Stimulate calls or real opinion? You be the judge.

That social media backlash, in case you were wondering, came after our post. This is awkward.