Longtime Washington-area sportscaster Chick Hernandez is “no longer an employee of WUSA9,” Richard Dyer, the president and general manager of the CBS affiliate, said in an email to The Washington Post.
The face of the station’s Commanders coverage, Hernandez traveled to Madrid last week to cover the team’s game against the Miami Dolphins, including an interview with Commanders Coach Dan Quinn shortly after the team arrived in Spain.
After providing daily reports from practices, news conferences and a youth football clinic hosted by the Commanders throughout the week, Hernandez was not in the press box at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for Sunday’s game. The station did not air a report from Hernandez about Washington’s 16-13 overtime loss. Hernandez was hired by WUSA9 as a sports anchor in August 2023.
“[T]here was a late change to our coverage plans in Madrid and we announced yesterday that Chick Hernandez is no longer an employee of WUSA9,” Dyer wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon.
Dyer did not respond to a request to comment further about how the announcement of Hernandez’s termination was made or the reasons behind the decision. Hernandez declined to comment.
A WUSA9 spokesperson said the station’s Commanders coverage, including a weekly kickoff show, will continue as planned without Hernandez. Ahead of last season, WUSA and the Commanders announced an exclusive television broadcast partnership, which included a weekly interview with Quinn. WUSA9 reporter John Doran conducted this week’s interview with the coach.
Hernandez, who worked at the network formerly known as NBC Sports Washington from 2001 until his contract was not renewed in 2018, got his start in D.C. as a reporter and anchor with WTTG in 1994, when the station’s sports director, Steve Buckhantz, hired him to replace Gus Johnson.
Hernandez, a Silver Spring native, described joining WUSA9 in 2023 as a “full-circle moment.” While a student at Maryland, he interned with Glenn Brenner and James Brown at the station, and the sports broadcasting legends would become two of the biggest influences on his career.
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