Great sunny Jesus- what was this guy thinking?

from www.sfgate.com – Brooke Hundley,[pictured with Steve Phillips] Marni Phillips, and Steve Phillips do form ESPN’s sex scandal, but there’s more to it than that. It’s the story of an abandoned, emotionally needy young woman.

Two weeks ago we had the waning story of David Letterman’s affair with his assistant Stephanie Birkitt, and I made the point that this kind of office affair is so common that some of the people complaining about David Letterman may have been involved in one themselves. In fact by one estimate almost one of every two office workers has been involved in some kind of affair or flirtation over the course of their work history.

But unlike David Letterman and Stephanie Birkitt, or even Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearey (where the LA Times weighs in with new news involving another employee) this ESPN scandal is a rather ugly one and not just because Steve Phillips is married as of this writing.

Steve Phillips is a former Major League Baseball manager with the New York Mets who is now a well known, and is in my opinion very effective ESPN baseball analyst (now suspended) and who’s married to Marni Phillips, and has four kids, but had an affair last summer with 22-year old ESPN Production Assistant Brooke Hundley.

According to a number of blogs like Zimbio.com, Phillips tried to end the affair, but Hundley wasn’t ready for that and what follows is something out of Fatal Attraction.” (As far as I’m concerned, as a aside, Steve Phillips should be massively kicked in the ass for treating his wife like that. At least David Letterman wasn’t married at the time of the start of his affair.)

Basically, Brooke, a 2008 graduate of Ithaca College according to her Facebook page, went off and so much so that Phillips eventually told the police “I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself,” and said that that Brooke was “obsessive and delusional” after he tried to end the affair.

Brooke wrote a letter that I first saw on Zimbio, which means that thanks to the NY Post, which as it turned out posted the letter first, it’s made it’s way around the Internet. But folks, this letter’s a doozy. Brace for impact:

What’s most galling about Brooke’s letter is that she would tell Marni Phillips that she wants to connect with her, after writing that Marni’s basically no good for Steve and she’s got “passion and drive to really do something with my life.”

The NY Post reports that Marni Phillips got a voicemail from Brooke stating “I care about Steve and make him happy and we both can’t have him.”

That’s nerve to an almost criminal level. It could only be topped by instant messages from “Riotgirl4life” to Steve Phillips’ son, who believed it to be Brooke Hundley because according to LaLate.com, the person was asking a lot of personal questions about the family.

The bottom line is Brooke fell in love and frankly the poor thing didn’t know what to do when the more experienced Phillips broke off the affair. I write this because somewhere Brooke’s mother is crying that her daughter’s at the center of this, and wondering what she did wrong in raising her.

My answer is this: nothing. Brooke made a mistake. The whole episode where Marni Phillips complained that Brooke hit a trash can while backing out of the house was simply Brooke being afraid that she was going to get caught while leaving the letter. I don’t think from reading all that I have that Brooke Hundley has a yen to hurt anyone. She’s reacting to feeling abandoned by Phillips, period.

But I do wish her parents would take her aside and let her know that they love her. Somewhere in all this I have the feeling that’s what’s missing in Brooke’s life.