In a story that first came out on January 13 from Scott Cronick of the Atlantic City Press, then suddenly mushroomed this week, we learned that ESPN First Take co-host Dana Jacobsen was suspended for her comments made at the Mike & Mike Celebrity Roast.
In a paragraph that was 4th from the bottom of the story, Cronick wrote the following:
ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson made an absolute fool of herself, swilling vodka from a Belvedere bottle, mumbling along and cursing like a sailor as Mike & Mike rested their heads in their hands in embarrassment. Griffin came to the podium to defend her after she was booed by the crowd. Ross eventually had to pull her off stage, too.
I linked to the story the following day, January 14. Then later, I linked to the Deadspin blog which noticed that Jacobsen had misbehaved at the event.
It appeared that was the end of the story, however, the Catholic League got a hold of the story and began to inundate ESPN about the comments made by Jacobsen at the roast which apparently were disparaging towards Notre Dame University and Touchdown Jesus. And it apparently is not letting go at this point.
And similar to what Al Sharpton did with the Kelly Tilghman story in not letting go until the Golf Channel suspended the anchor, the Catholic League did the same with Jacobsen.
Religion writer for the Chicago Tribune, Manya Brachear writes in her blog about the story without passing judgment.
The Baltimore Sun’s Bill Ordine writes in his blog about the Jacobsen incident and another involving St. Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad has more on the suspension which has not been confirmed by ESPN by the way.
USA Today’s On Deadline blog notes that Jacobsen defended Kelly Tilghman in an Orlando Sentinel story.
Justin Terranova writes in his NYP TV Sports blog about the Jacobsen suspension.
Michael David Smith from the AOL Fanhouse blog notes that Jacobsen may be anti-Notre Dame, but she’s not anti-Catholic as the Catholic League wants you to believe.
Jeff Carroll of the South Bend Tribune says when it comes to religion, it’s best to think before one speaks. But at the same time, Carroll says the Catholic League went a bit far in characterizing Jacobsen.
Now the Christian Defense Coalition is calling for ESPN to fire Jacobsen.
The story grew legs this week. It will be interesting to see if Jacobsen actually returns this week. The Catholic League is known for being very militant when it comes to issues like these. You may remember what happened to Opie & Anthony in 2002 in the infamous “Sex for Sam” incident when the League would not let go until CBS Radio fired the pair.
We’ll continue to monitor.
