Marty Reid is out at ESPN after a well-documented blown call at Kentucky. It wasn’t his first as you can see above.

Announcers make mistakes, just maybe not this bad. But after 31 years of covering five different motor sports for one network, the speed of Reid’s departure raised some eyebrows enough to merit a breakdown….Bery Convy style.

Win: Allen Bestwick

It’s hard to win in this situation. That said, NBC will need a lead announcer to call races. FOX may need more announcers to call Nationwide (or whatever it’s going to be called) Series races. Being the voice of NASCAR on a major network is never a bad thing, unless your name is Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football.

Lose: ESPN

In any human resources situation, there often is additional information that never gets made public. Chances are, you and I will never have access to this information.

What we do know is that ESPN loses NASCAR programming after next season. Racing fans already have hypothesized that ESPN will hack its racing coverage after losing broadcast rights, similar to what hockey fans insist ESPN has done with the NHL. This situation, whether justified or not, only adds fuel to those flames. ESPN already has enough on its plate.

Draw: Mary Reid

Wait, the guy got fired and it’s a draw? In this corporate climate, anytime someone loses a job after 31 years, it’s a tough tough pill to swallow.

So why is this a draw? There’s plenty of chatter suggested this decision has been building; it was even echoed on our Facebook page. I can’t evaluate Marty Reid’s ability to call a race. I do know that the broadcasting lineup of racing will drastically change over the next two years. I also know there isn’t a name with a more broad base of experience that Marty Reid. Plus, there are now 1,452,595 cable channels broadcasting sports. A story this viral leaving a man this sympathetic means Reid will bounce back more quickly.

What happened to Reid is tough, but tough people bounce back after getting knocked down. Marty Reid has done too much over too long a time period to not earn a second chance.