Sarah Phillips ESPN Firing: 'Concealed Identity, Bad Choices'
Freelance writer for ESPN Sarah Phillips has been fired this week after she admitted using a fake identity.
Phillips was formerly a gambling writer for Covers.com when she began writing for ESPN's Page 2, now known as Playbook, and became well known for her contributions.
Along with the writer's success, questions were raised over Phillips' work being inconsistent, as well as doubts about the discrepancy between her profile on Covers.com and at ESPN. People speculated that Sarah Phillips was not a real person to begin with, and the person writing was using a disguise.
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According to an in-depth investigation by Deadspin, Phillips was fired from ESPN after scamming two different men while holding her position at Covers.com and afterward. By promising one sportswriter, "Ben," a position with her website, Phillips gained his administration rights to NBA memes on Facebook and increased her readership.
Additionally, Phillips allegedly tricked "Matt" into contributing $21,000 in advertisements on her website. Shortly after, the website was taken down and none of the money was used for ads.
Meanwhile, Phillips posted what appeared to be several explanations, later deleting some from her Twitter account. They are as follows:
"I recovered the Facebook page for 'Ben,'" posted the writer about one of the men she allegedly conned. "Truthfully, he and I didn't communicate much. I learned much of that story today, with you."
"I made poor choices with who to trust," she added. "I'll correct that moving forward. It's not an excuse."
"I'm not trying to win anyone over, but I realize I compounded the problem by not commenting," posted the writer. "I'm not deleting my account. I understand if you unfollow. At the end of the day, there are two sides to every story."
While the details of the firing remain unknown, Phillips confusingly admitted to using a fake identity, but that her pictures on Twitter and YouTube were of her.
"I never wanted to be in sports media," explained Phillips. "It just happened. I concealed my identity so I wasn't a 'gambler' to future employers."
Moments later she posted, "My avatar is me. My YouTube video is me. I enjoyed my time with ESPN. They were great to me."
The gambling writer posted several other messages that defended her innocence against the report by Deadspin. One post indicates that Phillips is leaving sports media writing behind.
"Today was a good day," she wrote on Twitter. "I was able to evaluate and move away from sports media. You live and learn. I'm just a fan now."
Because she was a freelance writer and ESPN had never met their employee, the decision to let Phillips go was presumably an easy one in order to avoid bad press. The network has not commented on the incident.
