On Monday and Tuesday, we touched on the story of Todd Reynolds, the NHL player agent who came out against Sean Avery’s defense of marriage equality. Alright, fine, we more than just touched on it.
Rogers Sportsnet Fires Damian Goddard, Perhaps Over Same-Sex Marriage Comments
It was a pretty hot button issue in the hockey world, and others have since chimed in, mostly to voice condemnation for Reynolds’ idea.
Some agreed, though, and one of those people, Damian Goddard of Rogers Sportsnet, took to Twitter himself to voice that agreement.
I completely and whole-heartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage.
It appears as though those words have led to his unemployment.
Rogers fired Damian Goddard on Wednesday. But, sources tell Usual Suspects, it was not because of his comments on the Reynolds issue. The decision had been made prior to his support for Reynolds’s statements on SSM.
“Mr. Goddard was a freelance contractor and in recent weeks it had become clear that he is not the right fit for our organization,” emailed Dave Rashford, Director of Communications for Rogers Sportsnet. “As this is a confidential personnel matter, we will not be commenting further except to say that views expressed by Mr. Goddard on Twitter are his own and do not reflect the views of Rogers or Rogers Sportsnet.”
Sources say that Rogers’ policy on social media is that no employee should express opinions on Twitter that they would not say live on air or in print. At press time we have not been able to contact Goddard.
Yeah, sources say it had nothing to do with his comments, but the reported policy and basic common sense say otherwise. Given the backlash over Reynolds comments, it seems as though Sportsnet simply wanted to distance themselves from similar ideas. Probably smart, even if they won’t admit as much.
Goddard went on a bit after his initial Tweet on Tuesday, arguing back and forth with people before making a few seemingly un-related remarks about his kids, in-laws and wife. You know, stuff that people with “traditional marriages” have.
Perhaps ironically, his last Tweet as an employee of Sportsnet was about how he’s going to go spend time with his wife now, and I don’t think I’m the only one that saw that as a bit of thumbing the nose at the entire same-sex marriage issue.
Anyway, with his new-found unemployment, he’ll have time to do just that.
(Really, we’ll get back to hockey now. Promise.)
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