The World Wide Leader has fired Sarah Phillips, a columnist the network employed to write about sports gambling on their Playbook page. The firing came as a result of a a Deadspin story that questioned whether she was concealing her real identity.
Phillips claimed to be in her early 20’s as her fame and prominence within the internet world rose rather quickly. Prior to joining ESPN’s Page 2 staff which later turned into Playbook, Phillips wrote for Covers.com a sports betting website where she was originally a message board poster.
The Deadspin story though raised many questions regarding Phillips and whether or not the pictures that were led on to be her were actually her and if ESPN had a so-called ghost writer composing her columns on Playbook.
Deadspin also questions whether or not officials from ESPN actually met her or ever met her prior to her hiring.
On Phillips’ Twitter page, she has posted these recent tweets:
“I never wanted to be in sports media. It just happened. I concealed my identity so I wasn’t a ‘gambler’ to future employers.”
“I made poor choices with who to trust. I’ll correct that moving forward. It’s not an excuse.”
“My avatar is me. My YouTube video is me. I enjoyed my time with ESPN. They were great to me.”
“I have severed ties with many people today. I need a new circle. I need to get back to being a 22-year-old.”
To further add to the speculation, Covers.com editor Jon Campbell admitted he had his own questions about some aspects of Phillips’ work but didn’t give any specifics.
Said Campbell: “It was months ago that she wrote for us and things are still coming up . . . I’m not one to believe where there’s smoke there has to be fire. We were hearing so many crazy things and there was a lot jealousy where a girl was
Furthermore, Campbell said he had several phone conversations with Phillips but never met in person.
“There wasn’t anything that convincingly showed me that she wasn’t who she said she was,” he told Deadspin. “And if I’m wrong, we’ll be embarrassed and ESPN will be embarrassed.”
Either way it seems the mystery continues.
Ref: USA Today, Deadspin, Twitter
