Fox Sports reportedly has fired Pete Rose over underage-sex allegations – Chicago Tribune

Disgraced MLB hit king Pete Rose was something of a surprise addition to Fox Sports‘ MLB studio show back in 2015, and while he was seen as a little rough around the edges, he generally garnered favorable reviews for his candid, crusty takes on modern-era baseball. In March, the network announced that Rose would be back for another season in 2017.

But Rose’s run as a TV analyst is apparently over: According to a report Thursday in the Hollywood Reporter, he won’t return to Fox Sports’ MLB playoff coverage after allegations surfaced that he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl in the 1970s.

The network declined comment both to the Reporter’s Lesley Goldberg and Marisa Guthrie and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch. An email from The Washington Post asking for comment on Friday was not immediately returned.

That claim came to light in a defamation lawsuit brought by Rose himself against John Dowd, the attorney who oversaw MLB’s investigation into Rose’s gambling that resulted in his banishment from the game in 1989. In multiple radio interviews last year, Dowd claimed that a sports memorabilia dealer who handled Rose’s bets on baseball games also brought underage girls to spring training for Rose’s “satisfaction.” Rose denied the allegation and sued Dowd in July, but Dowd’s attorneys countered by filing a sworn statement from an unnamed woman who alleged that Rose had a sexual relationship with her that started before she turned 16, the age of consent in Ohio (where both she and Rose lived at the time).