It appears that ESPN announcers are unaware of which reporters still work for the company.
In the middle of this afternoon’s conference championship game between Memphis and UCF, veteran college football reporter Brett McMurphy broke the news that UCF coach Scott Frost was set to become the next head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers after signing a multi-year multi-million dollar deal.
Source: Scott Frost has agreed to 7-year, $35 million deal with Nebraska, but in days leading up today’s AAC title game was still having some “serious cold feet & remorse.” @LarsAnderson71 previously reported contract figures
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 2, 2017
During the in-game broadcast, longtime ESPN announcer Steve Levy referenced McMurphy’s report live on-air. Levy went on to emphasize that McMurphy was one of ESPN’s “own” reporters.
ESPN's Steve Levy "Scott Frost will be named the next head coach of Nebraska, first reported by our own Brett McMurphy"….McMurphy was laid off by ESPN back in April. ..Awkward pic.twitter.com/Aip929CDRX
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) December 2, 2017
Unfortunately, McMurphy was one of the several reporters laid of by the company back in April.
Here is McMurphy’s statement from April after he got laid off.
After 5 great years, I’ve been laid off by ESPN. It was a tremendous opportunity & I enjoyed working w/a lot of really, really good people
McMurphy caught Levy’s mistake and is now openly mocking ESPN on Twitter.
"Our own"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 2, 2017
It’s hard to fault Levy for the mix up considering the hundreds of people ESPN has fired in the last few months but it’s still a terrible look for the company. Hopefully ESPN does the right thing and credits McMurphy for his report later on SportsCenter.