NBC’s Tappen calls Roenick podcast talk ‘unacceptable’
Friends or not, Kathryn Tappen is not letting Jeremy Roenick off the hook for his “unacceptable” comments.
The NBC hockey broadcaster released a statement after former NHL star Roenick was suspended indefinitely by NBC Sports on Monday for his wildly inappropriate comments made about her and others on a podcast.
“While Jeremy and I continue to be good friends, what he said was unacceptable, especially among workplace colleagues,” Tappan said in a statement to the Associated
Press. “I do not condone his comments.”
Roenick, who has been an analyst at NBC since 2020 after a 20-year career with the Blackhawks, Coyotes, Flyers, Sharks and Kings, got himself in trouble for discussing a vacation to Portugal that he, his wife and Tappan took together on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast.
The three traveled together because Tappan and Roenick's wife, Tracy, are good friends, Roenick explained before wandering into threesome innuendo.
“I play it off like we're going to bed together every night,” Roenick said about how he explained the situation to another resort guest, “the three of us.”
He wasn't smart enought to stop there.
“If it really came to fruition, that would really be good, but it's never going to happen,” Roenick added.
Roenick didn't stop with Tappan. He also tossed out some questionable comments about another member of his NBC broadcast team.
He called Patrick Sharp “so beautiful” that “I'd have to think about it if he asked me. … I wouldn't say no right away.”
An NBC spokesman told the AP that Roenick's ban is without pay.
MSU ABUSE PROBE SUSPENDED
State Attorney General Dana Nessel has suspended a nearly two-yearlong investigation into Michigan State University's handling of complaints against now-imprisoned serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The probe, which began under Nessel's predecessor, has resulted in charges against three former school officials. One was convicted. Two others, including former president Lou Anna Simon, were ordered to trial. Their cases will continue to be prosecuted.
It is unclear if or when the investigation will resume. Investigators want the university to waive attorney-client privilege on more than 6,000 documents, and they hope to interview former interim president John Engler, who took over following Simon's resignation, Nessel spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney said.
The school's governing board infuriated Nassar victims this year after dropping a promised independent review of sex assaults committed by Nassar, a former campus sports physician who also worked for USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.
The trustees deadlocked over releasing the documents, though many now are personally reviewing them. Some said releasing privileged information would jeopardize the university's lawsuit against insurers to help cover a $500 million payout to hundreds of victims and related legal costs.