Francis Ellis Fired from Barstool Sports [UPDATE]

Francis Ellis was fired from Barstool Sports today, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy announced in a video on Twitter. Ellis wrote a blog on the site about Mackenzie Lueck, a University of Utah student who went missing in mid-June. Since the publication and subsequent deletion of the post, a suspect was charged with murdering Lueck. The tone of the post did not match the grave nature of the situation.

“Francis did think she was going to be okay, for whatever reason — I guess she liked something on Instagram,” Portnoy said. “Regardless, just an absolutely insane move to talk about the subject, to make any sort of light about it. He put it up and deleted it before I knew it existed, but the damage is done. You just can’t do it. Imagine being a family and reading it.”

Ellis, a graduate of Harvard who co-hosted Barstool’s morning drive-time SiriusXM show alongside former Jets and Steelers guard Willie Colon, is a standup comedian who was specifically known for having a dark sense of humor.

Keith Markovich, the editor-in-chief of Barstool, went on the Chaps and Kate show on Barstool’s Sirius station and explained the background of the firing:

UPDATE: Ellis tweeted the following statement