Michael Telek’s Monday afternoon started innocently enough.

The news producer for CBS affiliate KDKA in Pittsburgh got his packages for the 4 p.m. news from corporate and decided to spice them up a little.

“It was just like, ‘Here are the two teams in the Super Bowl,’ pretty boring,” the 27-year-old told Deadspin. “So I wrote the intro about the six rings and then changed it up. I mean, it’s Pittsburgh, we hate the Patriots, we hate Tom Brady, so it was a little wink for fans. Then I kept going on with my day.”

The segment aired with a chyron that lasted for about two seconds during video of the New England quarterback with the label of “Known Cheater.” After the show ended, Telek headed home.

Things quickly took a turn.

“At 5:05, my boss calls me in and she was like, ‘You need to be here now.’ [My manager] said, ‘What were you thinking, it’s all over social media, people screenshotted it, why did you do that?’ So I explained about Deflategate and everything and basically just told her my thinking. They said, ‘Well, we can’t have that,’ and all this stuff. So anyways, on Monday they said they were going to write me up and said it would be on my record.”

Tuesday presented a different set of reactions from management.

“I thought maybe there was an 8 percent chance I get fired,” he said. “My manager takes me into the office, and she said that there had been an investigation. She said, ‘Because you did that deliberately, you no longer work at KDKA. Today is your last day.’ So I said, ‘OK,’ and left. I went home and hung out with my friends.”

Telek doesn’t suspect that CBS corporate played a role in his firing, though he’s going to have to answer for the stunt when interviewing for jobs in the local media market.

“If I hadn’t just bought a house in Pittsburgh, I’d look around more, but I’m stuck here now,” he said. “Maybe I’ll try something different. I’ve always wanted to do investigative work and obviously I want to work in sports, so we’ll see.”