Jeremy Roenick is opening up on his firing from NBC, the threesome joke that led to his axing and what the hockey legend plans to do moving forward.
Remember, JR was suspended in December after he joked about his desire to have a threesome with his wife and NBC coworker, Kathryn Tappen, while on Barstools' "Spittin Chiclets" podcast.
Roenick didn't work -- or talk for 2 months -- until NBC honchos terminated the longtime hockey analyst on Wednesday.
Now, Roenick's talking to TMZ Sports. Here's JR in his own words ...
ON THREESOME JOKE:
"I gotta be a little bit more aware of the culture that we’re in right now, the things you can say, whether it's public or whether it’s in a podcast that you’re very comfortable telling stories."
"Whether they’re your very good friends, like Kathryn [Tappen] is one of my best friends, I’m talking about my wife, I’m talking about trips that we went on. I got too comfortable talking about something that all of us were pretty comfortable talking about. And, I got caught in that. At times, in the culture today you gotta be more aware of your surroundings and people’s feelings, and yeah, I went too far in certain situations."
ON NBC FIRING:
"It’s important to know that at the time nobody thought it was bad what I was saying. Nobody took offense to it. Nobody was saying anything on social media. Five days went by. Nothing on 'Spittin’ Chiclets,' nothing on my social media, nothing anywhere, nothing."
"Nobody complained until my boss, Sam Flood at NBC, decided that [what I said] wasn’t right, and we all know NBC has made a lot of mistakes covering up things and letting people slide, and all that stuff. I think this was their opportunity to make a statement, have a sacrificial lamb."
MESSAGE TO NBC:
“Thank you for having me there for 10 years. I loved being on television, having that platform to come to the people and share my love for hockey and all that stuff, like I said yesterday. But, I didn’t like to be muzzled, I didn’t like to be controlled, and unfortunately, NBC tried to do that too much, especially Sam Flood, my boss, tried to control me too much. And, unfortunately, I couldn’t be the real me."
ON CURRENT RELATIONSHIP WITH KATHRYN TAPPEN:
"We’re very close, we’re best friends. She’s one of my best friends. She’s still one of my best friends and she’s one of my wife’s best friends."
ON HIS NEXT CAREER MOVE:
"I’ve already had 5 or 6 opportunities to go work someplace. This was in within 2 hours of getting fired yesterday. I think the NHL is deciding what they’re going to with their NHL contract. I hope they look really hard at a lot of entities. Not just NBC. I think having my own show where I can be me, where I can bring sports and hockey and not be as muzzled, be as opinionated as I possibly can. That’s definitely in the works. There are some really cool platforms out there that I’m looking at, or maybe I might start my own."