A Perfect Storm

For the third time in recent months, ESPN has suspended an on-air personality -- this time, Tony Kornheiser -- for what it labeled a spectacularly sexist stunt.

The sports network benched Kornheiser for two weeks starting Monday for making ultra-catty comments on his radio show about the wardrobe choices of fellow ESPN employee Hannah Storm, who anchors "SportsCenter."

"Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today," Kornheiser, 62, said on the Feb. 16 broadcast of his afternoon show "Pardon the Interruption."

"She's got on red go-go boots and a Catholic-school plaid skirt . . . way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now," Kornheiser smirked about the 47-year-old Storm.

"She's got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body. I know she's very good, and I'm not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won't."

"But Hannah Storm . . . come on, now! Stop! What are you doing?"

Then, referring to the teenage protagonist of JD Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," Kornheiser added, "She's what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy at this point."

Apparently aware that his crude cracks weren't a smart career move, Kornheiser opened the next day's broadcast of "Pardon the Interruption" by cravenly apologizing.

"I apologize, unequivocally," said the former Washington Post columnist and "Monday Night Football" analyst. "I was wrong."

"I'm a sarcastic, subversive guy," he said. "I'm a troll, look at me. I have no right to insult what anybody looks like or what anybody wears. That, I think, should go without saying."

But the mea culpa wasn't enough to stave off punishment from the so-called "Worldwide Leader in Sports."