A radio host is coming to the defense of ESPN sideline reporter Stormy Buonantony, who joined a not-so-exclusive club of media members to be given the vintage Bill Belichick treatment of short, emotionless answers.
“Bill Belichick was a complete and total a-hole to you,” Jonathan Van Tobel, 35, said on the Monday, September 21, episode of VSiN’s weekday show, Money Moves. “It was absolutely ridiculous. The people that are trying to come in and say, like, ‘Oh, don’t cry about it’ or whatever, it was absolutely unprofessional.”
In addition to sideline duty for ESPN, Buonantony, 34, also appears on Money Moves alongside Von Tobel.
The radio host continued, “And if I may say, because I think you said this on the broadcast anyway, the thing that annoys me the most is two things… The first one is he was very nice to you in your meetings on Friday, was he not?”
Van Tobel was referring to Buonantony’s interview with Belichick during the second quarter of North Carolina’s game against Clemson on Saturday, September 19. The Tar Heels held a 14-3 lead at the time, but Belichick seemed disinterested in the interview. Asked what he had seen regarding penalties, he simply answered, “Too many of them. Too many.”
When asked if there was anything else he wanted his team to clean up, Belichick said, “No, we just have to keep executing better. Too many penalties.”
When Buonantony threw it back to the play-by-play and color commentary team in the booth, she assured viewers that she “made it out alive,” adding, “But I do just want to say, [it was a] very different feel on the sideline than we had yesterday at our meetings, right? The way we were talking, it was story time.”
Van Tobel provided further context for the awkward interaction on Monday, explaining “ that is not the first time that you and Bill Belichick are interacting with each other.”
“The second part, he pretended not to hear you on purpose,” Van Tobel continued.“He is an absolute jerk …He is an a-hole, and I hope that all of you will agree with me on this.”
He added, “And a lot of people were trying to fight back on me. No, you don’t do that to my co-host. I am the one that gets to do those sort of things. I am the one that gets to push buttons. …But you don’t do that to her, especially don’t do it on purpose. You’re a jerk, Belichick. I’m glad you lost the game.”
Van Tobel further rubbed salt in the wound via social media on Saturday, writing, “Bill Belichick falls to 0-1 in games in which he’s an asshole to @StormBuonantony.”
North Carolina lost to Clemson, 28-20, after a furious second half rally by the Tigers.
Read the full article here
