ESPN 1000's Marc Silverman eviscerates Bulls voice Chuck Swirsky for criticizing Bears coach Ben Johnson

ESPN 1000 afternoon host Marc Silverman ripped into Bulls radio voice Chuck Swirsky on Monday after Swirsky criticized Bears coach Ben Johnson on X for shouting “F— the Packers!” in the locker room after the Bears beat them Saturday night. Video of Johnson, which the team took and shared, went viral.

Swirsky has since deleted his post, but it caught the attention of Silverman, who shared his history with the longtime sports broadcaster on the air.

“You know how I feel about Swirsky. I’ve had him blocked,” Silverman told co-host Tom Waddle. “People don’t realize what a bad dude he is. When [Dan McNeil] left the station and they parted company [in 2009], Chuck Swirsky was the first guy who called the bosses, telling them, ‘You can get rid of Jurko [John Jurkovic], you can get rid of Harry [Teinowitz]. No one will do a better job at that show than me.’

“He’s called the station before when we used to put Bill Wennington on, and he used to complain about us to our bosses that we were putting Wennington on, who was a former NBA champion, over him and that we need to put him on the station. He’s a guy that will shake your hand and stab you in the back. He’s one of the worst people out there.”

Swirsky has been Wennington’s radio partner since 2008. When asked by the Sun-Times on Tuesday if he had heard what Silverman said, Swirsky replied, “I respect your question. I hope you respect my answer. No comment.”

Silverman told the Sun-Times he did not regret his rant.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I stand by everything I say. What I stand for more than anything are the relationships that I make in and out of the business. Those are the most important things to me. When someone has done this repeatedly, I finally had enough.”

On the air, Silverman was just getting started.

“For Chuck Swirsky to think that anybody cares what he thinks about Ben Johnson swearing in a victorious locker room, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “Chuck Swirsky is another guy who will never call out Jerry Reinsdorf. He will continually kiss his ass. He’d rather lose 60 games a year as the announcer of the Bulls than care about what Ben Johnson is doing with a win. That guy is awful, he’s a bad dude and he’s not good at his job.”

He then explained his history with Swirsky.

“I finally had enough of him. He would shake my hand and stab me in the back. I’ve experienced it. I would see him at Bulls games — this is what he’d do — and then a day later, he was going up to [Bulls chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf, showing the mean tweets that people were saying about the Bulls.

“What a rat. What a bad person. There are not many people in this business that I don’t like. I care about my relationships. That is one of the worst guys. My wife told me to not address this, do not bring this up. He doesn’t deserve your time. I don’t know how to fight without that way. This is one bad, bad, bad person.

“Chuck Swirsky has stirred it up in this town but acting like he’s a good person for years and years and years. And those, in my opinion, are the worst people in the world.”

Silverman also took exception to ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale’s criticism of Johnson. Vitale posted on X, “Total CLASSLESS attitude in winning by BEN JOHNSON coach of the ⁦@ChicagoBears⁩ in the fab comeback to beat the ⁦@packers⁩ .Main theme should have been the gutty comeback not the childish F__ Packers comments”

Silverman said Vitale needs to “stay in his lane” but praised him for the millions of dollars he has raised for cancer research.