After being mercilessly ripped on Twitter for the better part of a day, ESPN now says that its suspension of Bruce Feldman for participating in a book by Mike Leach (after getting the network’s permission to participate) wasn’t a suspension at all. Here’s the entire statement (which seems to be loading right now).
ESPN Statement: Bruce Feldman Was Never Suspended
“There was never any suspension or any other form of disciplinary action. We took the time to review his upcoming work assignments in light of the book to which he contributed and will manage any conflicts or other issues as needed. Bruce has resumed his assignments.”
Maybe I’m just a stickler for silly things like ‘coherence’ and ‘the meanings of words,’ but ... if he wasn’t suspended, what was there to “resume”? Why was he (apparently) not even allowed to tweet during the review period? And if he honestly wasn’t suspended, why did ESPN wait to make a statement while every sportswriter from Tallahassee to Tacoma was trashing the network Thursday night? It’s good to see that Feldman is back on the job, but let’s be clear - by every indication, he really was suspended, and what’s really going on here is that ESPN has given up trying to defend the indefensible.
For more on the Bruce Feldman situation, follow this storystream.
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