We reported the part of Lawrence’s lawsuit where she says Chris Berman left a racist voicemail for Jemele Hill, but NY Post has more details and they are quite something.
According to the suit, male executives and talent at ESPN “keep ‘scoreboards’ naming female colleagues they are targeting for sex.” It also alleges that men openly watch porn on their computers and have made comments in Lawrence’s presence like wondering what Rihanna must “taste like.”
Lawrence later claims that ESPN’s human resources department “colluded with Buccigross to cover up his misconduct” and that her complaints eventually led to her firing in 2017.
ESPN responded to December’s Globe story by releasing some of the text exchanges between Lawrence and Buccigross. The company said the pair “had a consensual, personal friendship that spanned months,” and that Lawrence’s allegations were “entirely without merit.”
Here is ESPN’s statement.
“We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit. Ms. Lawrence was hired into a two-year talent development program and was told that her contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the training program. At that same time, ESPN also told 100 other talent with substantially more experience, that their contracts would not be renewed. The company will vigorously defend its position and we are confident we will prevail in court.”
If you want to see some of the text messages between Lawrence and John Buicgross flip the pages.