Chicago Radio Host Fired for ‘Degrading and Humiliating’ Comments Toward ESPN’s Maria Taylor

Maria Taylor received a lot of praise for her work during the Pittsburgh Steelers versus New York Giants game on Monday Night Football. However, one Chicago radio host, Dan McNeil, posted a “degrading and humiliating” tweet about the ESPN reporter, which cost him his job. On Tuesday, Entercom fired McNeil, who worked at the sports station 670 The Score. The company then apologized to Taylor for the comments McNeil made.

“For each one of us our words have power. For our brands and on-air personalities that is amplified and brings increased responsibility how we choose to use our voices. Last night’s tweet, and its degrading and humiliating tone to a fellow female broadcaster, was unacceptable,” Rachel Williamson, regional president for Entercom, wrote in a statement. “We have the best teams in Chicago, and we must continue to hold ourselves to high expectations to continue to be leaders in our organization, our industry and our community. We apologize to all who were offended by Dan’s words, especially Maria.”

In the now-deleted tweet, McNeil posted a photo of Taylor’s attire during the Monday Night Football broadcast and wrote: “NFL sideline reporter or a host for the AVN annual awards presentation?” The tweet was only up for 30 minutes, according to Awful Announcing. When Taylor noticed McNeil made the remarks, she had the perfect response.

“Well, Danny Dearest if you would like to continue making sexist comments about me…please bring your misogyny with you to the NBA Countdown doubleheader I’ll be hosting tomorrow night,” she wrote on Twitter. “Hey, ladies, remember you can wear whatever you feel confident in!”

On Instagram, Taylor showed off a bouquet given to her by her NBA Countdown team.
“The people who fuel me. Are the people who support me,” Taylor wrote. “The only people who can effect (sic) me are the people who love me. I’m SO thankful for my NBA Countdown family. Once again you’ve lifted me up over a hurdle. And made me feel like a Queen. Let’s go crush the Finals.” Taylor is known for reporting on college football and basketball but has done more work on the NBA side for the last couple of years. The Monday Night Football game was Taylor’s NFL debut and was working with her college football colleagues, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit.