Blackhawks reporter, Downers Grove native fired for sex comment

Two days after flubbing a line in a Chicago Blackhawks report that went viral on the Internet, Comcast SportsNet Chicago has fired reporter/anchor Susannah Collins.

Collins is a native of Downers Grove.

In her video report Tuesday, Collins mistakenly said the Blackhawks had a “tremendous amount of sex during the regular season,” when she intended to say they had a “tremendous amount of success” instead. She corrected herself immediately in the report, but that wasn’t why she was let go, according to a statement from Comcast SportsNet officials.

While that video of Collins’ mistake gained national attention — even making “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” — it also fueled online traffic to a series of videos made several years ago by Collins and a co-host of “Sports Nutz.” That video series, also carried on YouTube, included several sexually explicit remarks considered offensive.

While Phil Bedella, vice president and general manager of CSN Chicago, said in a statement that the decision was “due to circumstances unrelated to her on-air remarks Tuesday night,” the Huffington Post reported, the timing of Collins’ abrupt exit is difficult to ignore.

Jay Leno showed the video of Collins’ mistake on the “Tonight Show” Wednesday, and called it the “Freudian Slip of the Day.” The video clip already has been viewed more than 170,000 times on YouTube, according to AOL Jobs.

Collins is a native of suburban Downers Grove and graduated from the University of Illinois, according to CBS Chicago.