Former Bears center Olin Kreutz has been fired by a Chicago sports media startup after assaulting a co-worker.
The company, CHGO Sports, released a statement saying it dismissed Kreutz immediately.
“On Monday morning, an incident occurred in which Olin Kreutz physically attacked a CHGO employee,” the statement said. “Effective immediately, Olin Kreutz is no longer with CHGO. Although we were shocked by the incident, we are thankful that the employee is okay. The health and safety of our employees is of the utmost importance and we will not tolerate any action that puts that in jeopardy.”
According to Jeff Agrest of the Chicago Sun-Times, Kreutz grabbed the neck of colleague Adam Hoge. Hoge was not injured and did not press charges.
Kreutz’s only response has been a tweet with an image showing the statement, “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it,” which the image attributed to Mike Tyson.
The 44-year-old Kreutz made headlines in January for claiming that the Bears offered him a job for $15 an hour, saying that the McCaskey family that owns the team is cheap, and the Bears won’t improve until they start to spend more money. George McCaskey said Kreutz’s comments should be taken with a grain of salt.
Kreutz played for the Bears for 13 years and made six Pro Bowls. In 2005 he broke teammate Fred Miller’s jaw in a fight.