Josh Neighbors Fired For Airing Bob Huggins Anti-Gay Slur on Podcast, Coach Keeps Job

A sports podcaster who aired anti-gay comments made by West Virginia University men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins on another program was fired, he said Wednesday — hours after it was reported Huggins would keep his own job.

In a message and accompanying video posted to his Twitter account, Josh Neighbors said that he had been “let go” by Locked On Big 12.

“I thought I was using my platform to combat the hate speech, to say it’s unacceptable, to play its entirety, to give the effect of, ‘Oh my God, that was reckless, careless, and hateful,’” said Neighbors in the clip.

“It did not matter to the folks at Locked On.”

During a Monday appearance on a Cincinnati radio program, Huggins discussed an incident in which “rubber penises” were thrown on the floor during a game between the University of Cincinnati, which he formerly coached, and Xavier University, a Catholic institution.

"What it was, was all those f-gs, those Catholic f-gs, I think,” said Huggins.

In the wake of Huggins’ radio appearance, Neighbors rebroadcast the uncensored remarks on his own show.

“I did that because I thought it was important to play and get the full context of what he had said,” Neighbors explained.

“I followed that up by saying I thought what he had said was abhorrent, I thought it was hateful. And also I’d said that if I was the AD [athletic director], I would have fired him and I would not want somebody like that espousing those views coaching my team.”

Huggins will serve a three-game suspension, have his salary reduced by $1 million — from $4.2 million to $3.2 million — and undergo sensitivity training, but ultimately keep his job, ESPN reported Wednesday.

Neighbors, who had been with Locked On since early 2020, said that he was informed Wednesday evening that he was being locked out of his work accounts. He said that he was able to make his pitch to stay, but that the decision to fire him “had already been made.”

“I understand they have their rules,” he said. “I might disagree with them, but if there’s a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech — whether you’re decrying it or you’re using it — that is their prerogative.”