Former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovskey caught heat this summer when he tweeted “protect our daughters” about the participation of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif in the Paris Summer Olympics.
On Tuesday Orlovsky made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show where he was asked whether he was forced to delete the tweet from one of the higher-ups at ESPN.
According to Awful Announcing, host Pat McAfee asked Orlovsky straightforwardly if his hand was forced.
“Hey, before we have a hard out here on ESPN, didn’t want to bring it up obviously, did ESPN tell you to delete that tweet or no? I just need to know. Can you tell me? That’s all you need to say, did ESPN tell you to delete that tweet or no?” McAfee asked.
“ESPN did not, nor did anyone associated with ESPN tell me to delete that tweet,” Orlovsky responded.
“I get where you were standing,” McAfee told his colleague at ESPN. “You feel like, ‘I could lose my job. I don’t need to be that.’ Everybody has attacked you. We want to let you know, we think you’re a good dude. We think you are a good dude, Dan. I think you obviously made a little whoopsie there in that particular situation, and we move on.”
It appears Orlovsky, who agreed he made a “whoopsie” in posting the tweet deleted it on his own accord.
Still, it was a strange tweet in the first place, considering Imane Khelif is not trans and was in fact born a woman.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.