'I feel like they wanted to make an example of me.' A leak investigation cost Adnan Virk his ESPN career. Now he’s starting over.
Adnan Virk was fired from ESPN after a leak investigation. He starts a new job at DAZN this week. By Ben Strauss Ben Strauss Sports and Media Reporter Email Bio Follow March 26 at 8:00 AM NEW YORK — On the afternoon of Feb. 1, Adnan Virk drove home from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn. It was a familiar trip. Virk, 40, had worked at the network for nine years — he was a studio host on “Baseball Tonight” and for the network’s college football and college basketball coverage.
Still, Virk couldn’t help but feel some relief that the report had been explicit about why he was fired. “This is the #MeToo era,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone to think I was like Louis C.K.” After broadcasting school at Ryerson University in Toronto, Virk’s first on-camera job was hosting a movie-themed show in Toronto called Bollywood Boulevard. He transitioned to sports, working at a couple of networks in Canada before auditioning for ESPN.
When first approached by supervisors about the story, Virk denied speaking to Koo, on whose podcast he had previously appeared. After human resources asked him to turn over his company phone, Virk later admitted that he had talked to Koo. Because Virk had been in touch with Koo about “Baseball Tonight” before the conference call, ESPN considered the leak premeditated.
“I learned it’s very fascinating to know what the relative nature of truth is,” Virk said. “Everybody understands a story differently."
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