Bears reporter Courtney Cronin explains herself for dropping F-bomb on ESPN 1000 morning show

ESPN Bears reporter Courtney Cronin explained herself for dropping an F-bomb Friday morning on ESPN 1000 in frustration for hearing an echo of her voice in her earpieces.

“I had a moment of frustration with the audio issue we were having,” Cronin told the Sun-Times on Saturday, “and I said something I shouldn’t have said, not realizing I had a live mic. We fixed it quickly, and the interview continued. Clearly five long days at the combine caught up with me and were the catalyst behind my sleep-deprived on-air flub.”

At the start of Cronin’s appearance on ESPN 1000’s “Kap & J.Hood” show, Jonathan Hood asked her what she gleaned from USC quarterback Caleb Williams’ news conference at the NFL Scouting Combine. She and the listeners immediately heard the echo, and after 12 seconds of talking, Cronin said, “All right, f— this,” and dropped off the call.

On the show’s video feed, co-host David Kaplan appears to notice the echo before making an NFL official’s holding-penalty gesture to co-host Hood, likely meaning Hood should put Cronin on hold. But before Hood could react, Cronin blurted out the swear.

“All right, we’ll put her on hold. We’ll get back to Courtney in a moment,” Hood said as Kaplan looked on stunned.

ESPN 1000 could face punishment from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibits “obscene, indecent and profane content from being broadcast,” according to its website.

The station has yet to respond to requests for comment.