First Stephen A. Smith, and now Max Kellerman. According to the New York Daily News, Kellerman has been suspended by ESPN for his own comments on Ray Rice's domestic violence situation. Kellerman, a co-anchor of SportsNation and HBO Boxing's lead analyst, is in hot water after appearing on a lead-in show to his own radio program on ESPN L.A.
On-air, Kellerman told a story about how he and Erin, his then-girlfriend (now his wife of 20 years) once attended a college party that got a little out of hand. Kellerman said that he and his girlfriend got drunk and rowdy, and when he tried to calm Erin down, she slapped him, and he slapped her back.
Kellerman quickly pointed out that he and Erin have been happily married for two decades, but the damage was already done. He tried to bring in his own personal experience into the conversation (like Stephen A. sort of did), and it hasn't sat well with ESPN executives. Audio of Kellerman's story is unavailable, because it was edited out of the show's podcast.
The Daily News claims that, according to industry sources, ESPN's executives had conversations with all of their on-air talent, and were told to tread lightly on the Ray Rice story. While their source called Kellerman's story "disturbing," its been indicated that Kellerman wasn't necessarily being punished for the content of the story, but rather for his (in ESPN's eyes) insubordination. ESPN didn't want anyone saying anything else about Ray Rice that hasn't already been (safely) said, which seems to run counter to the network's ideology of pushing debate and critical personal comments upon its consumers.
Kellerman either thought that his story was appropriate to share, or he ignored ESPN's direction altogether. Either way, he'll be off the air until next Thursday.
[via Deadspin]
