Desmond Howard livid Lee Corso had Emmys taken after ESPN scandal: ‘F–ked me up’

Desmond Howard opened up about getting tied up in ESPN’s Emmy Awards scandal.

Earlier this week, the network revealed to The Athletic that they submitted fake names to the Emmys for on-air talent that were ineligible for awards, and then re-engraved them before giving them to the talent.

It impacted “College GameDay” stars, but Howard, along with co-hosts Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler and Lee Corso, allegedly did not know about the scheme.

“So, I get a phone call from an exec, and they’re saying that there’s some type of rule with the Sports Emmys or what have you, that the talent isn’t supposed to get Emmys,” Howard said on the Pivot Podcast. “Now, this is the first I’ve ever heard of this. It made zero sense. Like, who should get it then? You know what I mean? The show is not the show without the on-air talent.”

Howard said he was defiant about giving about his award, and became incensed when he found out Corso was being asked to return his award as well.

“What really, I’m gonna tell you all, f–ked me up, is that my man said ‘We got someone at Corso’s house getting his right now,’” Howard said. “They’re taking that old man’s Emmy’s? If they’re going to take his, you can have all of mine. I’ll break these damn things. You’re going to take that man’s Emmy’s? I said ‘How could y’all even let this happen to him?’ I was f–ked up over that. I’ll break all of them. Take ’em in pieces. That’s how much they mean to me. …

“Bitter taste in my mouth about that whole situation, I ain’t going to lie. Because I love Corso, and they took his. They should be ashamed of them damn selves.”

ESPN apologized for the scheme, which factored into former exec Lee Fitting’s firing in August, The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported.

“Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names that may go back to 1997 in Emmy categories where they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes. This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team,” ESPN said in a statement to The Post.

“Once current leadership was made aware, we apologized to [National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences] for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to safeguard against anything like this happening again.”