Hour 2: Guest Chrissy Froyd Alleges Widespread Misconduct in NFL Media

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
I've had Jazz Chisholm last night sucking on a lollipop in the middle of the game at second base, and then Aaron Boone's saying that he did tick him off, and he talked to him after the game, and we will never see it again, but a quick pivot here, because who knew that lollipop gate was gonna happen?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:15)
Who could foresee such a thing?

**Craig Carton** (0:16)
And I've been actually anxious to talk to Chrissy Froyd, and she joins us now via Zoom. Chrissy, it's Craig and Big Mac. Good afternoon, thanks so much for spending a few minutes with us today. How are you?

**Chrissy Froyd** (0:28)
Good, how are you?

**Craig Carton** (0:29)
Doing great, so just for background sake, Chrissy worked at The Athletic, I think I have that right, and was there around the time that the whole Dianna Russini Mike Vrabel thing blew up, and she commented on it, and then lost her job because she commented on it, and has since put on, my words not hers, a bit of a crusade to kind of open up Pandora's Box a little bit more than it's already been open in regards to some of the untoward relationships that some reporters may have with the men that they cover in the NFL, so I appreciate you joining us. First off, did they tell you why they fired you when they did, and were they honest about hey, we're not comfortable with a fellow athletic employee commenting on things that involve us, or were they just like hey, you're at will, goodbye, good luck to you?

**Chrissy Froyd** (1:17)
So I was with USA Today Sports Media Group. So I had been in the running for several jobs with the athletic and it had come in second place several times and I know a lot of people there. So I do have a lot of affiliation with the athletic. At one time, someone had proposed that Dianna Russini should be my mentor and they were working at the athletic at the time. At the time, the athletic also almost hired me.

**Craig Carton** (1:40)
So that's kind of where it gets me a little bit. You were employed by USA Today. You almost worked at the athletic, but obviously had connections there and had interview there. So USA Today decided we're not comfortable with you commenting on the biggest story this off season in the NFL?

**Chrissy Froyd** (1:59)
Yeah, it's funny. I mean, they didn't. It took them like three days to say something. And by the end of day one, there were like two and a half million views. So I guess the USA Today, they all just live under a rock. Isn't that funny?
Anyhow, so the statement, the statement itself that was released, the email that I received and the phone call that I had, everything was different. I was not told of any, I never signed any professional conduct, anything. I was a freelancer. I had never even seen a conduct thing. I don't even know that there was actually a time, I'll give you this, that USA Today had this big issue with its freelancers on the college side. And the boss on the college side had told me about it, that they had rescinded this plan to try to make freelancers sign social media contracts because they were afraid that it was going to be a legal problem.
They're afraid it's going to be a legal problem. Yet they do, they do this. So it's, it's very, very interesting to me because basically what I got in the email was like, what I was told is like, oh, pretty much, oh, we just don't want to be a part of the news cycle. I'm like, well, too bad, so sad. I didn't include you in this on purpose. So now you're going to do this. And they came up with this whole thing. She doesn't uphold our standards of professionalism and ethical, all this stuff. And I'm like, well, you never even showed me one. So how was I even supposed to try to uphold that? Shame on you.

**Craig Carton** (3:14)
Here's what's interesting to me about USA Today doing it.
It seems like what they did to you very quickly became the norm across all media outlets that have a relationship with the NFL or that cover the NFL. And what I mean by that is this is the type of story that has legs. Like, I just did an hour with Big Mac talking about the second baseman of the Yankees sucking a lollipop, no joke, during last night's game against the Detroit Tigers. And I could do it for five consecutive hours today because people were very opinionated about it and want to get either their pound of flesh against the player they don't like or whatever the case may be.