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Penalty box
ESPN's hotheaded host lands in trouble again for 'inappropriate' talk
June 28, 2007
BY ROBERT FEDER Sun-Times Columnist
Google "Dan McNeil" and "suspension" and you'll come up with a list of incidents going back at least seven years.
That list just got longer, thanks to yet another suspension for the mercurial afternoon personality on ESPN Radio's sports/talk WMVP-AM (1000).
While Carmen DeFalco filled in alongside co-hosts John Jurkovic and Harry Teinowitz, McNeil was off the show Wednesday and will be gone for the remainder of the week -- if not longer.
McNeil's bosses won't discuss details of his latest offense except that it involved "inappropriate comments on the air directed at another individual." The episode occurred on Tuesday's show.
Calling it "an internal matter," Jim Pastor, president and general manager of ESPN 1000, wouldn't say whether McNeil was being paid during the suspension.
One way or another, McNeil seems to explode with regularity, returning from each suspension chastened and apologetic. And then, inevitably, it happens again.
After he was suspended for an especially nasty exchange with Teinowitz last year, it took nearly three weeks before McNeil worked everything out and was allowed back on the air.
What could account for the seemingly unlimited patience of his bosses?
One obvious reason is that his show tops the ratings among men between the ages of 25 and 54. Another is that if ESPN 1000 ever dropped McNeil, his former home, CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR-AM (670), would welcome him back with open arms.
But someday even all that may not be enough to save him.
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