Jomboy Media producer Dan Rourke is catching major blowback after he directed an offensive rant at Blue Jays outfielder George Springer on Wednesday — and it’s possible MLB could get involved.
“F–k you Springer, kill yourself,” Rourke said on his “Yankees Avenue” livestream after Springer scored to give Toronto a 4-2 lead over the Yankees in the fifth inning of the 8-4 win. “Piece of s–t.”
The clip went viral on X and Reddit, with fans up in arms at the comments, particularly given Rourke’s affiliation with Jomboy Media, which has become a major component of MLB’s media ecosystem in recent years.
“I can’t stress how much of a pathetic piece of garbage loser you are @DanAlanRourke,” wrote a Blue Jays fan account on X. “This guy is employed by jomboy telling players to kill themselves. F–k you.”
Jomboy founder Jimmy O’Brien addressed the situation in a video Thursday night.
“Dan Rourke does his livestream for Yanks Ave … and said some stuff you can’t say,” O’Brien said. “I talked with Dan today. Everyone at the company has been talking and he came up to us … and he was feeling awful, and I think he’s going to apologize and all of that.”
Yankees Avenue is Rourke’s personal livestream, which is unaffiliated with Jomboy Media, but Rourke is employed by Jomboy and is a well-known member of the company.
“He grew up in gaming culture, young kid culture, you talk s–t during livestreams,” O’Brien added. “That’s no excuse to tell a player to go kill yourself. Joking, not joking, obviously you can’t say that and it’s terrible, and there might be ramifications from it.”
O’Brien said those ramifications could be determined by MLB, which agreed to a strategic partnership with Jomboy in June.
Warning: Graphic Language
“The league might call us and say, ‘Hey, he’s not allowed here,’” O’Brien said.
For now, though, none of that has taken place.
O’Brien added that he’s learned to tone down his language since he’s become a public figure with Jomboy, even if he never meant any of his comments in a malicious way.
“Anyone that’s my age used a lot of words in the early 2000s, very freely, that you can’t say anymore …used a lot of phrases, not with ill-intent behind them,” O’Brien said. “Obviously [Rourke] didn’t have any ill-intent behind them, but obviously that doesn’t excuse anything.”