In what was some pretty shocking news reported on Thursday by The Athletic, Detroit Tigers’ broadcasters Rod Allen and Mario Impemba allegedly got into a physical altercation following Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
From The Athletic:
“Multiple sources told The Athletic that neither Impemba nor Allen were part of Wednesday’s broadcast due to a physical altercation between the two television personalities following Tuesday’s game in Chicago against the White Sox. It is not immediately clear what prompted the incident.
According to the accounts of those sources, there has been simmering tension between both Impemba and Allen and the clash of personalities ultimately boiled over on Tuesday night.”
Though the initial report was extremely vague, WDIV Detroit reported later in the day that the altercation was over a chair and that Allen choked Impemba from behind.
From WDIV Detroit:
“Sources told Local 4 that Impemba left the broadcast booth at some point and Allen followed, assaulting Impemba from behind and choking him.
The altercation was because of a disagreement over a chair in the booth, sources told Local 4.
Viewers might not have noticed anything unusual during the game, but listening back to the broadcast, there are several long silences later in the game, including a 43-second stretch without talking in the bottom of the sixth inning.”
Now, Rod Allen’s agent has released the following statement to WXYZ Detroit, denying any “choke hold.” In fact, according to the statement, the whole thing was much ado about nothing.
From WXYZ Detroit:
“We have not commented because Fox Sports Detroit is handling this professionally and thoroughly. But these ridiculous, blatantly false descriptions require me to speak the truth and say they are utter fabrications.
There was no ‘fight.’ Nobody followed anybody, there was no contact from behind, and a ‘choke hold’ is a shamefully untrue way to describe anything which occurred in that very brief altercation.
Anonymous fiction by others does injustice to the very concepts of fairness and professionalism. Those who give such gross untruths to media should be ashamed of themselves.”
Late Thursday night, Allen hopped on Twitter to defend his name.
“I’ve always conducted myself as an honorable professional and I always will. Because this is a personal matter. I can’t comment right now.”
I’ve always conducted myself as an honorable professional and I always will. Because this is a personnel matter. I can’t comment right now.
— Rod Allen (@RodAllen12) September 7, 2018
