Jerry Remy will likely be back in the NESN broadcast booth Friday night. Credit: Getty Images
Jared and Jerry Remy both got what they deserved.
Jared, the scumbag monster who admittedly murdered the mother of his child, will be locked up in state prison until he dies. Jerry Remy, the famed Red Sox color analyst, will continue to be absent from Red Sox broadcasts for the next couple of nights, but his true punishment for enabling Jared for all those years will also be something of a life sentence.
Jerry has already been publically humiliated in several Boston Globe articles, particularly the one in March titled, “For Jared Remy, leniency was the rule until one lethal night,” and on various sports radio shows. But the backlash won’t entirely cease. There will forever be those who snicker behind Jerry’s back and there will be forever be cringing and comments from viewers at home when his face pops up on a NESN telecast. There will forever be whispers about how he enabled his son for years and there will be endless chatter about what he could have done differently in raising Jared. Jerry will continue to be treated differently from co-workers, friends, family and the anonymous than he was before Aug. 15, 2013 – the day of Jennifer Martel’s murder.
Now, the original plan was for Remy to continue his duties as Don Orsillo’s sidekick Wednesday night at Fenway Park as the Red Sox faced the Atlanta Braves. Mercifully, the executives at NESN realized that 30-plus hours after Jared Remy’s guilty plea wasn’t exactly a great time to bring back the “Rem-Dog.” Steve Lyons announced on WEEI sports radio Wednesday that he will be in the booth with Orsillo for Wednesday and Thursday’s games at Fenway. So one would assume that this means Remy will be back on TV Friday night when the Sox play Tampa Bay. Perfect.
Ease him back in on a weekend, when the media scrutiny won’t be there. By the time Monday rolls around there will be a new topic that Bostonians will be discussing.
Yes, Jerry Remy’s days under the big microscope are likely over, because fortunately for him, there won’t be a public trial that plays out going forward. And the days of bombshell Remy stories in the media are also likely over.
But the whispers at homes from here to Bangor, Maine will remain. Jerry will forever have a scarlet letter on his broadcast blazer, because he sucks as a dad.
You know sports play-by-play legend Marv Albert? He’s still doing games, but he’s still also the “guy who dresses in women’s underwear” for many sports fans when his face pops up on the TV … and his “incident” happened in 1997. There’s a joke or two made at his expense at the beginning of the broadcast, and then the viewers turn their attention right back to the game.
That’s sort of, kind of what the future will be like for Remy. You’ll be at a party. The Red Sox will be on. Remy’s face will pop up, and someone will say, “Hey, look – it’s the father of the year!” or “I just can’t believe he’s still doing these games after all that stuff.”
In the end, Jerry Remy gets to keep the job he loves. That’s the good news for him. The bad news is that he will pay a small fee of brief public humiliation on every Sox game he does from now until NESN decides he is no longer qualified.
Nope, Jerry Remy didn’t murder anyone. But he deserves to forever be questioned. Going forward he will be questioned by the viewer, for a minute or two every night … then it’ll be “back to the game.”
Follow Metro Boston sports editor and columnist Matt Burke on Twitter: @BurkeMetroBOS
