Former ESPN play-by-play announcer Ron Franklin filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the all-sports network, USA Today reported Wednesday. According to the report, Franklin confirmed he had filed the suit, but declined to give details or specify the amount of damages he is seeking.
Franklin was fired Jan. 4 for making a sexist remark to sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards prior to the Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.
Franklin and Edwards had the spat in a pre-game production meeting also attended by ESPN announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore.
The group was discussing Gilmore's wife Marie's election as mayor of Alameda, Calif., when Edwards tried to join in but said she was shut down by Franklin.
"Listen to me, sweet baby, let me tell you something... " Franklin reportedly told her.
Edwards then said she told him not to speak to her like that, to which he responded: “OK then, listen to me, ass****.”
Following the incident, ESPN pulled Franklin off the broadcast of the New Year's Day Fiesta Bowl.
In a statement one day before his firing, Franklin said: "I said some things I shouldn't have and am sorry. I deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl."
Franklin, a 68-year-old native of Mississippi, had called college football and basketball games for ESPN since 1987.
Franklin also came under fire in 2005 for referring to sideline reporter Holly Rowe as "sweetheart" during a football game between Purdue and Notre Dame.