Adnan Virk has gone from fired to hired.
Virk, who was let go in February by ESPN for leaking information, has agreed not to pursue any legal recourse against his former employer. Though he had two years left on his ESPN contract, Virk will receive none of his remaining money.
Instead, Virk has accepted a job to be a baseball host on the fledgling DAZN, a digital upstart platform that has made its name in the United States with boxing, but just ventured into baseball with a three-year, $300 million deal that will allow it to do a cut-in show during the regular season.
DAZN executives look at Virk as potentially the face of the platform as it grows. DAZN is run by Virk’s former ESPN boss, John Skipper, while Josh Santry was recently hired to be its vice president of talent. Santry was formerly an agent at CAA. Virk is represented by CAA.
The agreement with ESPN was finalized late Thursday afternoon.
For weeks Virk’s lawyers and ESPN had been in talks to reconcile the final two years of his contract. Virk, 40, who was considered a rising star before his demise in Bristol, has not been paid since being let go more than a month ago
“I’d like to thank the wonderful people who I worked with at ESPN for making my experiences over 9 years there so memorable,” Virk said in a statement. “While the Company and I may disagree about the specific circumstances surrounding my departure, we all collectively agree it’s time to move forward. I’m so grateful to my wonderful family and friends for their support and am eager for what lies ahead.”
In a statement, ESPN said, “ESPN and Adnan Virk have agreed not to litigate our differences and are moving on. We wish Adnan the best of luck with his career.”
Virk was let go after ESPN accused him of a leaking a story to the website Awful Announcing.
The site reported that ESPN agreed to move “Sunday Night Baseball” from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m. because of MLB relenting on a contractual clause that called for a certain amount of “Baseball Tonight” shows during the regular season.
ESPN was particularly peeved, according to sources, because it felt Virk acted in a “premeditated” way to tip off the site. ESPN found that Virk asked pointed questions to one of his bosses that were unrelated to Virk’s job responsibilities that later appeared on Awful Announcing.