Like Howard Eskin, radio host Mike Missanelli is finished. Geno Auriemma and Dianna Russini are badly damaged.

When Howard Eskin and Mike Missanelli ruled the midday and evening airwaves in Philadelphia at the various iterations of 94.1 WIP sports talk radio, people often asked me if their passion and outrage was an act. A put-on. Performative.

With those two guys, it was never an act. Having worked with them for more than three decades, I can tell you that they were both committed professionals, if flawed individuals. Anybody who listened to them for more than 10 minutes knew that, when frustrated, they turned into the worst sort of bully there is: the sort of bully who knows his victim has no recourse.

Eskin’s career effectively ended in 2024 after two incidents involving abuse toward women. First, there was the “unwanted kiss” of an Aramark employee at a Phillies game that got him banned by the Phillies and Sixers. Then there was an incident in which Eskin got into a heated altercation with a WIP employee at a remote broadcast in which he at least shouted at her, and, at worst, grabbed her, though Eskin has denied any physical interaction. The King was done. WIP fired him.

Missanelli now faces a similar fate.

» READ MORE: Former Fanatic radio host Mike Missanelli arrested after domestic dispute, placed on leave from On Pattison podcast

Missanelli was arrested and arraigned Wednesday on charges of simple assault and harassment stemming from a domestic dispute with his fiancée near midnight Wednesday at his home in Wynnewood. Police say a heated argument led to the woman pushing Missanelli, to which he responded and “open hand slapped her on the left side of her face/head.” An officer said he saw blood on the woman’s forehead.

Love him or hate him, Missanelli, who as a younger man earned a law degree and worked as an Inquirer reporter, was a talented, charismatic, intelligent star. He worked at WIP for over a decade between 1992 and 2006 before he was fired for punching a producer. Missanelli then worked at 97.5 The Fanatic for more than 15 years between 2007 and 2022 and again briefly from 2024-25.

While at 97.5, Missanelli briefly was removed from the airwaves for an outburst at his co-hosts while defending the actions of a white woman who called police in New York’s Central Park and falsely claimed a Black man was threatening her. The incident occurred the day after the arrest and murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

The woman was fired from her job for racism, and Missanelli offered a tearful apology a week later in which he blamed his “Sicilian DNA” and admitted “I probably have more flaws than anybody.”

In 2017, Missanelli was fired from his weekly TV appearance on 6abc after making misogynistic comments about female sportscaster Beth Mowins.

Recently, Missanelli has been headlining the podcast On Pattison, but the podcast’s parent company, the Fideri News Network, on Wednesday issued this statement: “In light of the nature of the allegations, Mike will not be a part of the On Pattison Podcast during the legal process."

It was a generous statement, according to several local broadcast executives. One told me Thursday:

One expert in the local broadcast industry told me, “I’d be astonished if he ever works for another outlet again.”

Missanelli already has largely been scrubbed from onpattison.com.

Calls to the podcast referred me back to the statement, ostensibly because Missanelli remains under contract.

Calls and texts to other longtime media entities, both on-air and behind the scenes, indicate that Missanelli’s “Sicilian DNA” routinely manifested itself during his long and successful broadcasting career.

Which, at this point, seems to have come to a definitive end.

There’s something people don’t seem to grasp in the controversial New York Post “Page 6″ story from Tuesday that, without proof, casts the relationship between The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel as romantic in nature. The pair was caught on camera grasping hands, hugging, then, in bathing suits, lounging side-by-side and alone in a pool and in a hot tub.

Vrabel and Russini denied any romantic connection, and Russini’s bosses didn’t have an issue with it. They should.

This interlude doesn’t need to be romantic to be inappropriate. That has little to do with one being a man or one being a woman. Russini routinely delivers scoops and rumors. The nature and intimacy of her relationships with sources, male or female, should be professional. This was not.

Imagine if Inquirer scoop-meister Jeff McLane was caught greeting Eagles GM Howie Roseman with a double-handed squeeze, an affectionate hug, and then, in bathing suits, hung out with Howie all afternoon in the pool and the hot tub. McLane’s objectivity would forever be questioned.

» READ MORE: Geno Auriemma stained his legacy and the game. He should apologize to Dawn Staley on the court on Sunday.

As this stands, at the very least, Russini will never be taken seriously on any matter relating to any team with which Vrabel is associated.

It immediately calls into question whether Vrabel has been using Russini to further his quest to acquire disgruntled star A.J. Brown from the Eagles. Brown was the featured receiver when Vrabel coached in Tennessee before the Eagles traded for Brown in 2022.

The differences between Dawn Staley and South Carolina and Geno Auriemma and UConn could not have manifested themselves more clearly three times in a five-day span.

First, Auriemma reprimanded Staley for some perceived pregame slight at the end of a national semifinal game Friday night as they shook hands on the court in the game’s final moments. When the game ended a few moments later, Auriemma left the court and refused to shake hands with South Carolina’s players and coaches.

Staley, who held the high ground, then took the high road. She refused to let the incident distract from either her team’s win or the fine effort put forth by UConn’s players. For Staley, it’s always about the team.

For Auriemma, it’s always about Geno. He not only stood by his comments, but he did so with a condescending, entitled smirk as he uttered the words that will be etched on the gravestone of his already diminishing reputation:

“I said what I said.”

It then took Auriemma 18 hours to issue a boilerplate apology to South Carolina’s players and staff — an apology that did not include Staley by name. It was insincere and it likely was coerced by his superiors, his staff, his players, his alumni, and, very likely, by some recruits who can always change their minds about the school and its increasingly abrasive coach.

This “apology” sparked a new wave of outrage at Auriemma.

Staley again declined to address the issue and the “apology” as she prepared for the championship game Sunday.

Finally, on Tuesday, Auriemma apparently called Staley to offer a personal apology. She accepted. We know this because Staley immediately posted her acceptance on social media in the early afternoon.

It was eight hours until Auriemma acknowledged the conversation and offered his personal, public mea culpa. He did this at 8:58 p.m., long after most traditional news cycles ended, long after most journalists’ workdays had ended.

It was a cowardly attempt at avoiding blowback.

For UConn and for Geno, it was par for the course.