Jeremy Roenick, a former NHL analyst and player, has had a huge setback in his case against his old employer, NBC. Part of Roenick's allegations against NBC were dismissed this week by a federal judge in New York, notably those connected to his gender and sexual preference.
After comments he made during an interview on the Spittin Chiclets podcast from Barstool Sports ruffled a few feathers at NBC Sports, Roenick was suspended and effectively dismissed in December of 2019. Roenick was fired as a result of his statements regarding a female coworker, NBC's Kathryn Tappen, after Roenick joked about having sex with Tappen and his wife. Roenick sought to establish that similar statements had been made by NBC staff, even during official NBC broadcasts, but those claims were dismissed on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan.
«Roenick fails to show that his conduct was ‘of comparable seriousness' to that of Lipinski and Weir,» wrote Cronan as per the Hollywood Reporter. «And a comparison of the two incidents shows that Roenick's behavior was categorically different. Lipinski and Weir participated in a skit for NBC that included jokes about the term ‘camel toe' and an ‘[o]ffice romance' between ‘besties.' Roenick, on the other hand, used his ‘free time' outside of his role at NBC to tell the hosts of a Barstool Sports podcast that he ‘jokingly implied' to fellow vacationers that he had sex simultaneously with his NBC co-worker, [Kathryn] Tappen, and his wife on multiple occasions. Simply put, neither Lipinski nor Weir joked about having sex with a co-worker. Roenick did.»
