The wife of Washington general manager Scot McCloughan apologized Wednesday for tweeting disparaging remarks about an ESPN reporter earlier this week. Jessica McCloughan, Scot’s wife, made some pretty salacious accusations about ESPN reporter and former NBC Washington reporter Dianna Russini and how she was able to get inside information about Washington’s NFL team.
Washington apologizes after initially covering for comments from GM’s wife
Jessica McCloughan called Dianna Russini her husband’s “side piece” after Russini had broken a number of stories about Washington’s quarterback situation over the weekend.
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
That was only part of the story, however, as the Washington PR team quickly got involved and made the situation even more messy. Which is hard to do considering McCloughan called Russini her husband’s “side chick” in one message and accused her trading “BJs” for a scoop.
McCloughan sent multiple disparaging tweets about Russini on Aug. 30 from a now-deleted account. The account was private at the time, but the tweets still managed to make their way around the Internet on Wednesday. Washington moved quickly to claim that the tweets from McCloughan were from a fake account. According to Pro Football Talk, Washington senior vice president Tony Wyllie said the account was fake and he was forwarding the issue on to NFL security.
The denial seemed a bit odd, considering the account at one point thanked Scot’s son for wishing him a happy birthday in March.
@Rutherchevy thank you!
— Caden McCloughan (@CadenMcCloughan) March 5, 2015 Either way, Washington had taken its stance, the account was fake. That stance lasted for a few hours. Not long later, Jessica McCloughan issued an apology through the team that just denied the account was real.
"I deeply apologize for the disparaging remarks about an ESPN reporter on my personal Twitter account. The comment was unfounded and inappropriate, and I have the utmost respect for both the reporter and ESPN. I regret that my actions have brought undeserved negative attention to the Redskins organization and its leadership. My comments in no way reflect the opinions or attitudes of the organization and I regret that my behavior has in any way negatively impacted the team and its loyal fan base."
ESPN released a statement about the comments, saying, “Dianna is an excellent reporter who should never have to be subjected to such vulgar comments. We are obviously extremely disappointed by today’s developments.”
For Washington, it’s just another example of a dysfunctional business bent on imploding itself, and this after the team spent the spring and summer talking about “winning the offseason.”
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