Former pro hockey player sues NBC Sports for anti-straight discrimination

[JonLP24]

He claims that if he were gay, he'd be allowed to make sexual comments about the women he works with.

A former professional hockey player is suing NBC Sports, claiming he was fired due to anti-straight discrimination.

Jeremy Roenick played for several NHL teams before he retired in 2009 and worked as a sports analyst. In 2020, he made a sexual joke about a female co-worker and got fired from NBC. Now he claims that’s bias against straight men.

Speaking on the hockey-focused Spittin’ Chiclets podcast this past December, Roenick said, “I’m swimming with my wife and Kathryn, and they’ve got their bikinis on, and they look f**kin smokin.”

“A** and boobs everywhere. It’s great.”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/07/former-pro-hockey-player-sues-nbc-sports-anti-straight-discrimination/

[Awsi Dooger]

1. Roenick adopted that sexually suggestive schtick all over the place

I saw him do it at numerous celebrity golf tournaments, including in person at one I attended in Orlando January 2019. It was a combo LPGA/celebrity tournament. Extremely attractive women in revealing outfits would go up to Roenick between green and tee box, and sometimes allowed inside the tee box.

Roenick would pose for pictures with them and do stuff like pretending to grab their ass while the photo was being taken. The gallery loved it. I think he even had a sponsor that wanted that reputation and was responsible for the women being there. Otherwise it seemed far too many and far too coincidental. I remember the photographer herself was very attractive and dressed to notice. A guy standing next to me at the 14th tee asked her who she worked for. Immediately she showed her press credential and it was some website with a racy name. I sensed they were using Roenick to hype and jump start their brand.

Roenick was the class clown at those celebrity golf outings. He would make wisecracks all over the place and talk to gallery members including between green and tee especially if it was a long walk. It was good natured but there were some profane jokes. To his credit he treated fans well and interacted with them and genuinely listened to their comments. He spoke to me out of the blue at that event, talking about the difficulty of the previous hole and how he had to change strategy off the tee.

I attended that same event in January 2020. Roenick was scheduled to play but they obviously changed plans once he had the controversy and was suspended. The event had a totally different feel without him. There was no shouting from one fairway to the next, as Roenick did all the time to a fellow celebrity he wanted to needle. BTW. Roenick is also a very good golfer and normally finishes very high. His game is not polished enough to beat guys like John Smoltz or Mark Mulder.

In short, I don't think Roenick is the worst guy. His attitude is fun and not confrontational or mean spirited. I could rattle off one name after another from those events who are absolute jerks. But Roenick -- and perhaps his sponsor -- may not have sensed that he couldn't apply same schtick and words to every venue, even a podcast. Those words he got in trouble for sound exactly like something he would say at the golf tournament. I guarantee the gallery would have exploded in laughter including the LPGA pros.

Roenick probably believed a podcast was a semi-serious extension of those golf outings. The celebrity golf circuit is limited to a handful of events per year. Lake Tahoe in July is the biggie followed by Orlando in second place. If Roenick had let's say 10 or 20 of those tournaments to display the persona I think he would have been more satisfied and careful.

[JonLP24]

2. He may not be the worst person but claiming straight men discrimination is bizarre

And my main reason for posting the story. I know not to make comments like that in a workplace.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. I agree it is completely bizarre and wrong

I think Roenick is so stunned it turned out this way he's been scrambling for any remedy over the past 7 months. The one he chose was pathetic.

I just wanted to point out the situational impact leading up to those comments. It happened about a month prior to the Orlando Diamond Resorts celebrity golf tournament. He might have been trying to raise profile and get warmed up for everything he planned to use there. The 2019 event was the inaugural and his sponsor probably wanted to bump up the antics during the second year.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Here's an example of the way Roenick acts at the celebrity golf events

It's good natured fun. This is all the way back to 2011 in Lake Tahoe. He realizes this is now taken away from him and he can't rationalize it:

[obamanut2012]

7. He is a disgusting sexist creeper -- sorry you think that isn't the worst

And, now we know he is also a homophobic creep, too.

Quit excusing him, because you wrote paragraphs doing just that. Full stop excusing this behavior as not that bad. And, maybe realize that behavior isn't "fun" -- and it IS meanspirited.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Poor thing.

How horrible for him! It must be so tough to be straight in this world, especially this country.

Of course, I am sure there will be scores of people calling out his straight privilege (heterosexism) and reminding him of the systemic discrimination against GBL people. Right.

[mr_lebowski]

4. Yeah, a gay man for SURE wouldn't get fired from NBC if he was all

'so I was there with Richie and Tommy and they were in their thongs and there was just ass and dick everywhere!' when he was on the air, and Tommy was a co-worker.



There's a time and place, dude. Whenever you made this quip ... was the wrong time and place. You f***ed up ... suck it up, and move on.