Earlier today, we mentioned that Steve Phillips had been reportedly suspended by ESPN following the revelation of his (now no longer alleged) affair with a 22-year-old staff member named Brooke Hundley.The affair become a public matter when Phillips called police because of concerns that Hundley, based on her previous statements, might harm his family (you can read about them here). ESPN, somewhat surprisingly, issued a statement from Phillips, and one of their own, on SportsCenter around 2:40 PM ET Wednesday.
Phillips first:
"I am deeply sorry I have put my family and colleagues through this. It is a personal matter that I will not comment on further. I have, however, asked for a leave of absence to address this with my family and to avoid any unnecessary distractions through the balance of the baseball playoffs."There's nothing tremendously surprising here -- Phillips is in an otherworldly nightmare right now, and there's not a ton he can do other than to take time off work, move out of the spotlight, and try to restore order at home.
ESPN's statement came from Chris McKendry. McKendry's delivery of the statement was bizarre, in that while she read Phillips' statement in a very straightforward manner, she seemed to hem and haw while reading ESPN's statement, almost as if she hadn't been given an exact wording and received more of a general outline:
"... that we are aware of this and took appropriate disciplinary action at the time. We have granted Steve's request for an extended leave of absence to address it. And we have no further comment."Again, you have to see the clip of McKendry reading it, but it just seemed weird. Also odd was that ESPN even released a statement. Usually they act as if things of this nature didn't occur (because they don't fall under the umbrella of "sports and entertainment"), although ignoring the Phillips issue and diving right into an entire segment about Rick Pitino -- which they did following a commercial -- would probably have been a little too hypocritical.
Besides, with the proverbial [stuff] about to slam directly into the fan thanks to Daulerio's First Amendment fest over at Deadspin, it would seem prudent for the World Wide Leader to abandon their typical "there's no elephant in the room" method of ignoring issues and to get everything out in the open. After all, leave of absence or not, this is a story that's not going to go away quickly.
More at TMZ.com: 911 Call in ESPN Analyst Case
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wow, what an ignorant, sexist,one sided, "boys club" article. You call yourself a reporter?! How about the fact that this manipulative, calculated predator has ruined this girls life,as he probably has ruined the lives of the victims during his other "infidelities" as you said. How archaic of you. Haven't we come far enough in our level of intelligence to see and accurately assess a situation like this? So, he does this repeatedly, leaves a path of emotional devastation in his wake for both his wife and the other woman, and the best you can come up with is that she is the "psycho?" How about he is a predatorial sociopath who goes through woman after woman and then has his repulsive behavior excused. He tells these women personal details about his wife, children, all under the guise of getting close to them, then dumps them after he has had his fill. Call her disillusioned because that is what he helped create. But a "psycho" seems to be a great defense for you men. And as long as you defend or excuse his actions and crucify the girl, this will be the unfortunate, outdated, double standard. Shame on you.
People finally see what I suspected long ago. Steve Phillips is a liar and narcissist. He knows how to look good and say the right thing and will do whatever it takes to save his own skin. The general lack of feeling in his words is consistent with sociopathy. The pattern of secret risk-taking in the form of immoral, seemingly needless behavior is consistent with sociopathy. Most creepy to me is that he has a degree in psychology, as though he studied it to pass as normal and better play mind games with others, which is similar to a case study in a book called The Sociopath Next Door. I'm not sure anyone has ever written a book describing what it's like to live with a sociopath, but his wife (or soon-to-be-ex-wife, ha, Steve) would do herself and others well by writing one about him.
Are you serious...you paint this 22 year old as CRAZY...you are crazy ...you and this idiot steve phillips...he deserves ALL he gets and I hope she keeps talking. I think most women are SICK of these affairs...I for one applaud Brooke.
who cares im so sick of hearing crap like this all the time if its not the one its another person it is there private lives and we should keep our noses out of it and the media should not keep feeding on crap like this we have more problems in the world to deal with then his affair its simply none of our business and I feel for his family and may they find peace and forgiveness which will come in time . You should not loose your job over this as for its personal matters and the media is making it public matters. Good luck
You people that are commenting have only read this article, haven't you. The dude is an idiot, but those that would defend an adults actions of joining facebook and friending his son...pretending to be a classmate??? You have to be off to carry a sword and shield for this woman, just as I think the actions of Mr. Phillips don't deserve any defense by me. He's a on his way out of ESPN, it'll be alright ladies.
He may be on his way out now, but he will be back quicker than you can conjure up the specter of a tumescent Marv Albert in a garter belt, sans postiche.
He already had divorce proceedings pending against him and he couldn't even be cool for 2 months? What's wrong with him? He's already dragged his wife and kids through the mud of his past affairs, which made headlines in the tabloids.
I have an amusing theory of how the choice of that particular woman might reflect sociopathy. It's possible Steve was looking for twisted thrills by playing a game vaguely related to In the Company of Men. Obviously, the woman is quite unattractive, much worse than anyone who is thinking of Bill's Monica, and a man like Steve could have affairs with better material. But, with his background in psychology, he probably also sensed she was messed up, so to a sociopath, it might have been a fun opportunity. Like lulu6664 wrote, groom her with fake emotional intimacy, have a few encounters in a very short period, and then get rid of her - as planned. If so, he lost big time.
I wonder if anyone at ESPN has thought to investigate whether Steve went online using some alternate identity (ironic, considering what Brooke Hundley later did) and bragged that he was going to seduce and dump a homely, troubled woman. Because a sociopath would want to brag about that. His wife should research that from home, if he used a family computer. Unbelievable that anything like that might have happened, but sociopaths aren't rare. I haven't heard of any real-life, famous case study not involving killers and such, but maybe this is it.
That girl is "rough" to say the least!