Former ESPN tennis commentator, Doug Adler, who was fired over his ‘guerrilla effect’ comment about Venus Williams claims it makes him ‘sick’ to be branded a racist
Former ESPN tennis commentator, Doug Adler, who was fired over his ‘guerrilla effect’ comment about tennis star Venus Williams claims it makes him ‘sick’ to be branded a racist.
Adler appeared on the Today show on Friday to talk about the aftermath of his January 18 remark during Williams’ match against Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele at the Australian Open.
‘She misses a first serve and Venus is all over her,’ Adler said at the time. ‘You see Venus move in and put the guerrilla effect on. Charging.’
He claimed that he was describing Williams’ aggressive play, but that’s not how viewers interrupted the remark.
Viewers instead believed Adler was referring to Williams, an African-American, as a ‘gorilla,’ not ‘guerrilla’.
Adler apologized for his poor word choice but was let go just days later. He has adamantly denied accusations of being racist.
His dismissal prompted him to file a lawsuit against ESPN for wrongful termination in February and in March the 59-year-old suffered a heart attack.
At the time his doctors blamed it on stress related to the backlash he received after he was accused of making the controversial comment about Williams.
‘It just makes me absolutely sick,’ Adler told Matt Lauer on the Today show.
‘It’s not true. It couldn’t be further from the truth, and I don’t quite understand nor accept how something like that can happen to me,’ he said.
Adler (pictured) appeared on the Today show on Friday to talk about the aftermath of his January 18 remark during Williams’ match against Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele at the Australian Open
‘She misses a first serve and Venus is all over her,’ Adler said. ‘You see Venus move in and put the guerrilla effect on. Charging.’ He has maintained he meant Williams (Australia Open in Jan) was using ‘guerrilla’ tactics, however he was accused by some of comparing her to a gorilla
At the time Adler said he was speaking about Williams’ (pictured) tactics and strategy and ‘simply and inadvertently chose the wrong word to describe her play’
He told Lauer that his commentary had ‘nothing to do with an animal’ and ‘everything to do with tactics, strategy, how to win the point’.
Adler claimed the ‘guerrilla effect’ is a phrase that has been used in tennis for decades, including in a 1995 Nike ad with the name ‘Guerrilla Tennis’ that featured Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, according to Today.
The former professional player said it wasn’t until the next day that he found out he had been called a ‘racist’ by numerous people on social media.
Adler said his boss gave him the news. ‘I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you kidding me?” And he said, “It’s unbelievable,”’ Adler said.
Adler said his boss told him that everyone at ESPN knew what he meant.
‘(I’ve) never been a racist. I’ve never looked at color. Have never even thought of that term until this whole situation came up,’ Adler said.
After the backlash, Adler claimed he suffered ’emotional distress’ in a court filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging he was wrongly branded a racist and has lost other TV opportunities because of the controversy
Adler apologized for his poor word choice but was let go just days later. He has adamantly denied accusations of being racist. Williams is pictured during a match in the Western & Southern Open on August 16 in Ohio
At the time Williams, who has been faced with some controversy of her own, said she only pays ‘attention and address situations that are noteworthy’.
‘That’s exactly the way I read into it,’ Adler said Friday. ‘It was nothing.’
Williams is currently dealing with the aftermath of a car crash that claimed the life of 78-year-old Jerome Barson in June.
The tennis star was in the middle of a Palm Beach Gardens intersection on June 9 when the light changed before she cleared the intersection.
Jerome’s wife Linda Barson, t-boned Williams’ car in the crash, killing her husband.
At the time Williams, who has been faced with some controversy of her own, said she only ‘addresses situations that are noteworthy’ when asked about Adler’s commentary
Adler is currently suing the network for wrongful termination after being fired over the remark, which claims did not constitute his ousting.
He told the Today show that ESPN didn’t ‘have good cause’ and didn’t do their ‘due diligence’ to understand what happened.
‘If they threw me out to the wolves and basically, essentially labeled me a racist, they killed me. They made me unemployable. They ended my career. They killed my reputation, my good name,’ he told Today.
ESPN said in a statement that ‘Adler made an inappropriate reference to Venus Williams for which he felt no apology was necessary’.
‘We disagree and stand 100 per cent behind our decision to remove him from the 2017 Australian Open,’ the network told Today.
After the backlash, Adler claimed he suffered ’emotional distress’ in a court filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging he was wrongly branded a racist and has lost other TV opportunities because of the controversy.
His lawsuit calls for punitive financial damages, but doesn’t name an amount.
In February, his lawyer, David M Ring, gave the sports network a serve in a statement.
‘The irony is that Adler called everything correctly and in a professional manner, whereas ESPN did not – they recklessly made the wrong call,’ Ring said.
‘It was not only political correctness gone overboard, but also a cowardly move that ruined a good man’s career.’
Williams shakes hands after winning her Women’s singles second round match against Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele
The statement also included a comment from Adler, who said at the time: ‘It was shocking to be treated this way by folks who’ve known me forever… Anyone who has ever competed in sports knows exactly the meaning of the term I used. Period.’
Adler’s court documents did point out that ‘Guerrilla Tennis’ was the name of a Nike TV ad from the 1990s featuring Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.
‘Obviously, (Adler) saw that commercial many times and the phrase became widely used by those who actually understood tennis vernacular and followed the sport closely,’ the lawsuit claimed.
Filings then pointed to the use of the term by Tennis magazine senior editor Peter Bodo in a 2012 profile of Agnieszka Radwanska.
Adler was an All-American player at the University of Southern California who went on to play on the pro circuit.
He was hired by ESPN in 2008 and covered tournaments including the US Open, French Open and Wimbledon.