Marcus Hayes at the Inquirer is reporting that the Sixers are also banning Howard Eskin after he pulled a Joe Namath:

The Inquirer reported Tuesday that Howard Eskin, the undisputed champion of sports talk radio since WIP-FM went all-sports in 1986, has been banned from Citizens Bank Park since May for forcing a kiss on a female Aramark employee during a Phillies game in one of the ballpark’s exclusive seating areas. WIP’s parent company, Audacy, levied the ban.

By midday Wednesday, after team executives met regarding the matter, the Sixers decided to lock out the King, too. A 76ers spokesperson told The Inquirer that the team does not intend to offer Eskin access to its training complex until further notice. The team has also asked the Wells Fargo Center, where it is a tenant, to not grant access to its games or team activities for the foreseeable future.

Howard shouldn’t have had a Sixers credential to begin with, because he’s not “working media.” He shows up, asks a question pregame, then walks around for a bit, talks to fans, takes some selfies, and goes home. He doesn’t have a computer, he doesn’t turn sound bites for WIP, and he doesn’t actually watch the game. So if you’re the Sixers, here comes the guy to step in the shit and now you’ve got an easy path to locking him out.

It’s not like he had a great relationship with the PR staff or front office to begin with:

Marcus also mentions this:

“The Eagles have no plans to restrict Eskin unless more accusers surface. The Flyers did not respond to a request as of publication.”

EDIT – it looks like this line was replaced with the following: “The Eagles and Flyers also were contacted regarding their plans for Eskin going forward. Both teams indicated that they were monitoring the situation. Only the Sixers supplied an official response.”


Like I mentioned on Tuesday, these situations are always tough to judge from afar. We weren’t there. None of us can say definitively whether Howard was being a creepy perv or just totally awkward. The language used in the reporting and ensuing statements was “unwanted advance” and “unwelcome kiss,” which would probably get most of us fired from our jobs in 2024, regardless of intent and the level of indecency.

EDIT 2 – here’s a statement from a Comcast-Spectacor spokesperson:

“The Sixers control access and credentials for all of their events, including games and activities, in the Wells Fargo Center. We respect any decision they make regarding Mr. Eskin. We became aware of the incident regarding Mr. Eskin yesterday (Tuesday) and will continue to monitor the situation.”