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The world of sports news is generally pretty straight stuff: game?scores, player?trades and team owner transactions. A young woman who entered that world as a freelance online gambling writer for ESPN.com found herself quickly in the spotlight, but not in the way she might have imagined.
Sarah Phillips, who says she is 22, was fired by ESPN Tuesday after a profile of her on Deadspin?detailed her "rise from?an unknown message-board participant at Covers.com, a gambling website," to writing for the world's best-known sports network.?
Before being signed on by ESPN in September, and in subsequent?months, Deadspin reported that Phillips used both her Covers.com and ESPN ties to take advantage of two?people via the Internet. In one case, she and her associates allegedly took over a Facebook NBA Memes page from the creator, who thought he?would be working with Phillips. The creator was shut out of the?administrative rights to his own page after he allowed her in as an administrator. She also apparently?posed as someone else when first approaching him via email.
In the other case detailed by Deadspin, she asked for and received money from a Covers.com fan identified as "Matt," who had shared gambling picks with Phillips off and on for many months. When Phillips said she wanted to start her own website dealing with betting, in part,?but needed money, the fan ? who thought Phillips must be legit, especially with her recent ESPN connection ? gave her $2,100 as an investment, then found himself on the hook for much more, according to Deadspin's report:
A few days later, Phillips asked Matt for his advice on a Cardinals-Brewers game. The over/under for the game was 7.5 runs. Matt told her to take the over. She said she was betting $3,000 on the game. She sent him the betting slip to prove it, and he thought this was way over the top. Well, he thought to himself, at least I'm not betting against her.
The final score of the game? 5-2. She lost her $3,000, and she was mad. She responded by sending him an invoice for $5,000 ...
"She said I owed her that money in addition to thousands more for reasons unbeknownst to me," he told Deadspin. "She said if I didn't PayPal it to her that night she would have the LAPD come to my apartment and rob me. I told her I don't carry cash, and kept a hunting knife by my bed for three weeks."
ESPN fired Phillips Tuesday, and told msnbc.com Wednesday?it never had any connection with any of Phillips' ventures or online activities. Phillips, whose first post for ESPN.com was last Sept. 2, was interviewed before she started?by an ESPN editor, although the interview was not in person.
Patrick Stiegman, vice president and editor-in-chief of ESPN.com, said in a statement to msnbc.com that Phillips "provided the information necessary to contribute to us. We will review this instance and see if anything needs to be changed with our process."
Phillips' tale is the kind of story that would not be if it weren't for the Internet. ?People can have intense working relationships and never meet face to face, or even talk much by telephone. And identities tied to email, social media accounts and website registries can be confusing even when there isn't any subterfuge.?The Internet gave Phillips?an avenue for her livelihood, but was also the means of her downfall.
Msnbc.com tried reaching Phillips for comment, but we have not heard from her. One public venue where she is commenting, is on her Twitter account, which is still active.?
Deadspin writer John Koblin, author of the Phillips piece, told msnbc.com he hasn't heard from Phillips either?since the piece was posted, but that "like a lot of other people, I read her Twitter feed last night with a lot of interest."
On Twitter, following the publication of the Deadspin article, Phillips says, "At the end of the day, there are two sides to every story ...?I made poor choices with who to trust. I'll correct that moving forward. It's not an excuse."
She plans to "move away from sports media," she said on Twitter. "You live and learn. I'm just a fan now.
"I have severed ties with many people today. I need a new circle. I need to get back to being a 22-year-old."
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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