The Bronx Bombers fan who filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against two ESPN announcers who mocked him on air for snoozing in his seat said the whole experience was “upsetting” in an interview on Friday’s “Today” show.
“Put yourself in my shoes,” Andrew Rector told Matt Lauer. “How would you feel if you were broadcast on TV and all over the media?”
Rector said he had no idea what was going on when the stadium erupted in applause after he woke up.
“I actually went to the top of the stands to grab a drink and some food,” he said.
That’s when his phone started ringing with calls from “everybody” — including some people he hadn’t spoken to in years. They told him he was all over their TV screens. Rector didn’t catch the broadcast himself until the next morning, he said.
“It happens to the best of us,” he told Lauer. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
In a YouTube video posted by Major League Baseball, Rector is shown sleeping in a seat with his head hanging over his right shoulder while announcers Dan Shulman and John Kruk poke fun at him for snoozing and being heavyset.
Rector was stunned by all the hateful comments he read about himself online when the clip went viral.
“They put me on YouTube and created a public forum where people could comment,” he said.
“I’m a fan,” he said. “I paid to go to that game. I brought friends that were there. I have a reputation as well.”
His decision to sue the announcers — as well as ESPN, the Yankees and Major League Baseball — may have been a “spur-of-the-moment thing,” but he stands by his belief that they “clearly crossed the line.”
Rector and his lawyer, Valentine Okwara, are still determining how to proceed.
“We’re figuring out whether or not we’re going to move forward,” he said, adding, “I’m going to think about it for the next few days.”
When Lauer asked if a simple apology would suffice, Rector said, “Possibly.”