Mike Missanelli Uses Repeated Homophobic Slurs In E-Mail Chain With Disgrunted Listener
By Tim Kelly
Mike Missanelli, is the host of 97.5 The Fanatic’s “Mike Missanelli Show” (no kidding), which is the number one drive-home sports show in the Delaware Valley. He has had a huge following since his days at WIP, mixed with both his loyal listeners, and people who roll their eyes at every word he says, but still tune in.
I’ve interviewed Mike, met him in person, and he has been very supportive of the work that I have shared with him over the past few years, just to give some full disclosure. I also listen to his show a few times a week, and have for four or five years now, enjoy Missanelli’s sports talk, and think that he is a generally entertaining guy.
This afternoon, a Deadspin article surfaced showing Missanelli responding to one of his biggest critics, using homophobic slurs in what seemed like every other sentence. As Deadspin reminded us, the person who tipped them off to the e-mails, was too gutless to send his side of e-mails (leading you to think he wasn’t exactly innocent).
*Update* The full transcript from both sides can be read here.
Even if he didn’t have the balls to send his side of the e-mails, there is no way that it is acceptable for a public figure to react to a listener like this.
"From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 12:07:14 -0500Subject: RE: Oh yeah, Wizards moneyline and BeaversHahaha. Yeah, you’re a total computer geek loser with absolutely NO female involvement. Anybody who wastes four hours of the day listening to my radio show and sending e-mail from fake names has a a big “L” tattooed on his forehead. Women probably avoid you like stink. (BTW, what are you gonna do today with me off? Jerkoff to one of my podcasts, you obsessive homosexual IT freak?)From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 12:11:28 -0500Subject: RE: Oh yeah, Wizards moneyline and BeaversYeah, Sure. You’re whole life is a lie. Insecure people are usually like that. You are a 24 karat loser. And totally in denial because to take inventory of that would hurt you too much. You’re an obsessive weird-o and probably a closet homosexual.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2013 12:52:25 -0500Dude, your shit is boring. And if you dont think that abnormal behavior is someone who listens four hours a day to a guy he suppoedly loathes and then wastes more time sending abusive emails under fake names, then more power to you. I would first deal with your latent homosexuality problem.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:53:04 -0500Subject: RE: Arizona State, great pick.Dude, your shit is still boring. You latent homosexual freak.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:58:36 -0500Yeah. Sure. Two words: latent homosexuality. Discuss it with a mental healthprofessional.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:45:06 -0500I think that’s why your engagement broke up. Your fiancée realized you don’t like women that much. That’s why you lie about your “prowess.” You are a lonely loser who can’t get a date. So come out of the closet and I guarantee you’ll get male dates.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 21:48:46 -0500Guess you’re not going to do anything about your homosexual obsession with me, eh?From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:22:13 -0500Subject: RE: You gave in on Nick Foles?Hahahahahahahahahaha. YOU, getting tough with ME? Hahahahahahaha. Dude, I would fucking PRAY to say those things to your face. Hahahahaha.By the way, your obsession with me is unhealthy. You are a latent homosexual. But sorry to tell you, Im straight, so fuck off.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:44:40 -0500Dude, find yourself a nice guy out there in Vegas. Just don’t tell your parents back east that you’re really gay.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 11:00:20 -0500Family dinner was yesterday douche bag. Headed out now. Blue Bayou. And you? Lemme guess: trying to find another hooker you think you can have sex with only to come up impotent again because you’re really homosexual and in denial? Yeah, got that about right…From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 16:54:34 -0500Dude, you’re a total fucking fraud. You fix computers. End of fucking story. Plus you are a lonely loser. Have to be to be so obsessed and jealous of me. The unfortunate part about your “date” tonight is that obviously she’s going to be embarrassed when you can’t get it up because you’re a closet homosexual. Just give into it bro to avoid the embarrassment.Public figures using the f-word, in any capacity, is frowned upon in itself. Unfortunately in the society we live in, many people are more offended by that than a series of homophobic put-downs.To me it all goes back to two things. The first is how we allowed memes like this to become mainstream across the internet, when Jason Collins made the brave move to come out of the closet. Rather than condemning things like this, we liked them, retweeted them, and showed them to our friends.The second was when Roy Hibbert threw a “no homo” reference into a postgame press conference last year after an Eastern Conference Finals win, and as a society we didn’t stop and come to the conclusion that we need to eliminate references like this from our vocabulary.In both cases, I don’t necessarily blame society for not doing what is right, because we learn(ed) right and wrong from our parents. The unfortunate part about learning from our parents in this issue, is that many people in our generation should be teaching some of the bigoted views out of our parents, rather than the parents jamming the “no homo” culture down our throats.As a society, we need leaders and people in power to become the voices of reason, which is why this incident from Missanelli disappointments me so much. Missanelli, who is in his mid-fifties, has lived in a society that has made using slurs like this acceptable. In a large degree, he is a product of his culture. Nothing he said was okay, and by the time you are in your fifties, I would hope that you could realize homophobia, whether it is used literally or just in the sense of a putdown, isn’t okay. Chances are that he won’t face any penalty for this and we will forget about it in a few days, which allows events like this to seem acceptable and keep happening.Two weekends ago, we all got caught up in how Macklemore stole numerous Grammy awards from Kendrick Lamar. While that point of view was dead on, Macklemore has become a revolutionary artist, largely because of songs like this, where a straight grown man stood up to society in song, to point out that we act like caveman when we treat gay individuals like they are somehow less than straight individuals.Whether you enjoy Macklemore, or hip-hop in general, we can all learn something from the lyrics in “Same Love”. Missanelli’s e-mails bring homophobia in sports back to the forefront. We need to cut using the words gay, faggot, homo–and any other homophobic slurs–out of sports. Sports is about competing, not who you sleep with. Whether it is on the field, in the locker-room, or through sports media, we need to make sports a place that exemplifies equality–rather than a safe-haven for continued homophobia.Published on 02/03/2014 at 4:02 PM EDTLast updated on 06/26/2019 at 2:09 PM EDT From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 12:07:14 -0500Subject: RE: Oh yeah, Wizards moneyline and BeaversHahaha. Yeah, you’re a total computer geek loser with absolutely NO female involvement. Anybody who wastes four hours of the day listening to my radio show and sending e-mail from fake names has a a big “L” tattooed on his forehead. Women probably avoid you like stink. (BTW, what are you gonna do today with me off? Jerkoff to one of my podcasts, you obsessive homosexual IT freak?)From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 12:11:28 -0500Subject: RE: Oh yeah, Wizards moneyline and BeaversYeah, Sure. You’re whole life is a lie. Insecure people are usually like that. You are a 24 karat loser. And totally in denial because to take inventory of that would hurt you too much. You’re an obsessive weird-o and probably a closet homosexual.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2013 12:52:25 -0500Dude, your shit is boring. And if you dont think that abnormal behavior is someone who listens four hours a day to a guy he suppoedly loathes and then wastes more time sending abusive emails under fake names, then more power to you. I would first deal with your latent homosexuality problem.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:53:04 -0500Subject: RE: Arizona State, great pick.Dude, your shit is still boring. You latent homosexual freak.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:58:36 -0500Yeah. Sure. Two words: latent homosexuality. Discuss it with a mental healthprofessional.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:45:06 -0500I think that’s why your engagement broke up. Your fiancée realized you don’t like women that much. That’s why you lie about your “prowess.” You are a lonely loser who can’t get a date. So come out of the closet and I guarantee you’ll get male dates.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 21:48:46 -0500Guess you’re not going to do anything about your homosexual obsession with me, eh?From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:22:13 -0500Subject: RE: You gave in on Nick Foles?Hahahahahahahahahaha. YOU, getting tough with ME? Hahahahahahaha. Dude, I would fucking PRAY to say those things to your face. Hahahahaha.By the way, your obsession with me is unhealthy. You are a latent homosexual. But sorry to tell you, Im straight, so fuck off.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:44:40 -0500Dude, find yourself a nice guy out there in Vegas. Just don’t tell your parents back east that you’re really gay.From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 11:00:20 -0500Family dinner was yesterday douche bag. Headed out now. Blue Bayou. And you? Lemme guess: trying to find another hooker you think you can have sex with only to come up impotent again because you’re really homosexual and in denial? Yeah, got that about right…From: mikemiss@975thefanatic.comTo: [redacted]Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 16:54:34 -0500Dude, you’re a total fucking fraud. You fix computers. End of fucking story. Plus you are a lonely loser. Have to be to be so obsessed and jealous of me. The unfortunate part about your “date” tonight is that obviously she’s going to be embarrassed when you can’t get it up because you’re a closet homosexual. Just give into it bro to avoid the embarrassment."