Mario Impemba and Rod Allen, the duo for the Tigers Fox Sports Detroit broadcast team were reportedly involved in a physical altercation Tuesday evening, according to The Athletic.
However, the agent for Rod Allen is denying the report in a statement to 7 Action News:
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.
The Athletic says the play-by-play announcers were involved in a physical fight following Tuesday’s game in Chicago against the White Sox.
On Wednesday, Matt Shepard and Kirk Gibson anchored “Tigers Live” pregame show. Multiple sources told the paper the duo was absent from the show because of the altercation the night before.
“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.”
It’s unclear what happened and if there were injuries.
Fox Sports General Manager Greg Hammaren told The Athletic that this was an internal matter and it was being addressed.
