Men on the Edge of Panic: Boomer Esiason, Mike Fancesa and Toxic Masculinity

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18. That is incorrect. See below.

Former NFL quarterback and New York sports radio host Boomer Esiason apologized for comments he made about Mets infielder Daniel Murphy, who missed the first two games of his team’s season while on paternity leave. Esiason had suggested that Murphy and his wife should have scheduled a C-section to avoid Murphy missing time.

From CBS Local:


My deep apologies to both Daniel and Tori Murphy for creating an intrusion into a very sacred and personal moment in their lives, and that’s the birth of their son, Noah. Daniel is the Mets’ second baseman, whose brief paternity leave led to a flippant and insensitive remark that I sincerely regret. (In the) meantime, I’m very grateful to my many friends over at the March of Dimes who graciously reached out and re-educated me that if a pregnancy is healthy, it is medically beneficial to let the labor begin on its own rather than to schedule a C-section for convenience. In fact, babies born just a few weeks early have double the risk of death compared to babies born after 39 full weeks of pregnancy. As their promotional campaign says, ‘Healthy babies are worth the wait.’ And as a proud father, I couldn’t agree more.

Esiason apologized on both his radio show and a taped CBS Sports Minute, and said he reached out to the Mets in an effort to apologize to Murphy directly.