Joe Brolly says he deeply regrets a comment he made about Marty Morrissey back in 2015.
Brolly was a pundit on RTE for an Ulster Championship clash between Cavan and Monaghan when he said that Cavan football was "as ugly as Marty Morrissey" before adding, "Maybe I should apologise to the people of Cavan".
The Derryman said on Virgin Media's Sport Stories: Joe Brolly , which airs this week: "I learned things as I was going along.
"I made some mistakes. I made a very hurtful comment about Marty Morrissey once, which I've always regretted. I went to Marty personally, and apologised for it. Marty always says that I turned him into a sex symbol with that comment.
"That was a very good lesson for me. I'd just given the kidney [to my friend Shane Finnegan], and all of a sudden, I was a national saint. I think around that time I started to get a bit carried away with myself, even though I was thinking, 'Don't get carried away with yourself'. I was being treated almost like a saintly figure in the aftermath of that.
"It was something that I really regretted. I shouldn't have said it. It was off the cuff, and it was cruel. I made up with Marty. He's a great fella, great fun. My greatest regret is turning Marty Morrissey into a sex symbol."
Brolly talks about a number of topics in the interview, including his controversial exit from the RTE panel in 2019.
"What happened ultimately was a new Head of Sport [Declan McBennett] came in who had a very prescriptive view of how it ought to be done and very quickly I was made to feel uncomfortable," said Brolly.
"The previous Heads of Sports, we have a great relationship and still keep in contact.
"I suppose some people are just allergic to other people. And I think he was allergic to me. I think it was a sense of 'this is only going one way'.
"It was very disappointing to me, and very hurtful to me as well. I was shocked. I mean, I was shocked."
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