Say Goodbye to those ESPN Personalities Ya'll Love So Much: Official ESPN Layoffs Thread

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

There’s no set time you need to be at a company to retire..when you decide to retire, you retire from whatever company you’re at whether you’ve been there 2, 6 or 20 years

She just signed a multi-year extension with ESPN not even a year ago even after signing up to split duties with The Ringer. So either she's willingly retiring from ESPN on her own, or ESPN is forcing her to do so or face being laid off.

Like I said before, we'll find that answer out if/when she talks to Richard Deitsch after he contract with ESPN is up.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Corporate retirements are different that the 65 Social Security age requirement
ESPN might have offered her and others a deal for early retirement where she could make 75% of what she's making (via pension/401K) now just to get her off the books
Fortune 500s do this all the time to try to avoid layoffs

 

[Easy-E]

It's amazing how many of these ESPN talking heads were from Boston

It was started in Connecticut Boston is the biggest city

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Corporate retirements are different that the 65 Social Security age requirement
ESPN might have offered her and others a deal for early retirement where she could make 75% of what she's making (via pension/401K) now just to get her off the books
Fortune 500s do this all the time to try to avoid layoffs

They've also been asking talent as well to take paycuts on current contracts, so that's their way of trying to save money and avoid layoffs as well. So I could see them offering her a buyout and her accepting the deal while still having The Ringer to fall back on.

I wonder if they'll do the same thing with Tony Kornheiser or leave him be since he only does PTI for them.

 

[Legal]

It's amazing how many of these ESPN talking heads were from Boston

It really is. But it makes sense, though. In the beginning of the "debate" programming era, they just raided the sports desks of newspapers for people to throw on TV, and the Globe and Herald used to hold weight.

Getting to that time of the year again where ESPN lets a bunch of folks go as we get closer to and into the fall.

Katie Nolan probably hitting up Dan Lebatard to see what's good with a job right now.

If it weren't for them getting rid of Kenny Mayne out west, Hannah Storm and Linda Cohn would be looking at each other like "One of us old girls gotta go."

Marty Smith about to bailed out solely by the fact that he'll seemingly go cover literally anything, as long as they'll pay for a flight, and at least a La Quinta room.

shyt, low key if it weren't for the Maria Hill situation, the whole staff of The Undefeated would probably be on notice right now. They either moved or killed off most of their other specialized sub sites except for them. But the optics of them clapping a full site of black personnel (except for maybe Dominique Foxworth) would be pretty bad right now.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Katie Nolan probably hitting up Dan Lebatard to see what's good with a job right now.

If it weren't for them getting rid of Kenny Mayne out west, Hannah Storm and Linda Cohn would be looking at each other like "One of us old girls gotta go."

Marty Smith about to bailed out solely by the fact that he'll seemingly go cover literally anything, as long as they'll pay for a flight, and at least a La Quinta room.

shyt, low key if it weren't for the Maria Hill situation, the whole staff of The Undefeated would probably be on notice right now. They either moved or killed off most of their other specialized sub sites except for them. But the optics of them clapping a full site of black personnel (except for maybe Dominique Foxworth) would be pretty bad right now.

Rumor has it that Dan Lebatard really wants Bomani on his staff when his contract is up. Nolan would have been better utilized at The Ringer when she was hot, but I can blame her for not turning the $1 million a year that ESPN was offering at the time. A lot of those personalities at the network right now are just there with no defined role whatsoever. Guess that's ESPN's way of keeping cost down.

Marty Smith learned real quick that only covering NASCAR was a quick way to end up on the endeavored list and expanded his range

They've been saying for years now that The Undefeated has been a money losing venture for ESPN, so I don't know they haven't nuked the site yet. The people who would complain about the demise of the site are people who have either never heard of site before or even bothered to view and read its content.

To think that Whitlock could have still had a job at ESPN and in good graces with the masses, had he actually got the website and up and running like they paid him to do. A lot of those OG heads at the company like TK and Wilbon loved him, so it wasn't like his peers hated him.

 

[mson]

It was started in Connecticut Boston is the biggest city

In Massachusetts.

 

[Legal]

Rumor has it that Dan Lebatard really wants Bomani on his staff when his contract is up. Nolan would have been better utilized at The Ringer when she was hot, but I can blame her for not turning the $1 million a year that ESPN was offering at the time. A lot of those personalities at the network right now are just there with no defined role whatsoever. Guess that's ESPN's way of keeping cost down.

Marty Smith learned real quick that only covering NASCAR was a quick way to end up on the endeavored list and expanded his range

They've been saying for years now that The Undefeated has been a money losing venture for ESPN, so I don't know they haven't nuked the site yet. The people who would complain about the demise of the site are people who have either never heard of site before or even bothered to view and read its content.

To think that Whitlock could have still had a job at ESPN and in good graces with the masses, had he actually got the website and up and running like they paid him to do. A lot of those OG heads at the company like TK and Wilbon loved him, so it wasn't like his peers hated him.

Unless Meadowlark is still in this spot when his contract is up, and/or ESPN drops a Godfather style offer, Bomani's heading over at their earliest convenience. At this point, unless I'm wrong Bomani just has his podcast and Highly Questionable (which, ironically, was inherited by all the people Dan fukked with). The list of people they're sitting on that do little to nothing is crazy.

I respect Marty Smith's hustle. That motherfukker will go out and FIND some shyt for them to keep him around for. He showed up at a cornhole event a couple of weeks ago just to give them more content for The Ocho.

Literally the only thing keeping The Undefeated around is that there's just never a good time for them to get rid of a site with an entirely black customer facing staff. It seems like every time you think the hammer might drop, something happens in the world where they need to use the Undefeated branding to be "part of the conversation". The problem with Whitlock is that as long as Whitlock was in charge, that shyt was never launching. It was either keep Whitlock, or launch the site. They chose the latter.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Unless Meadowlark is still in this spot when his contract is up, and/or ESPN drops a Godfather style offer, Bomani's heading over at their earliest convenience. At this point, unless I'm wrong Bomani just has his podcast and Highly Questionable (which, ironically, was inherited by all the people Dan fukked with). The list of people they're sitting on that do little to nothing is crazy.

I respect Marty Smith's hustle. That motherfukker will go out and FIND some shyt for them to keep him around for. He showed up at a cornhole event a couple of weeks ago just to give them more content for The Ocho.

Literally the only thing keeping The Undefeated around is that there's just never a good time for them to get rid of a site with an entirely black customer facing staff. It seems like every time you think the hammer might drop, something happens in the world where they need to use the Undefeated branding to be "part of the conversation". The problem with Whitlock is that as long as Whitlock was in charge, that shyt was never launching. It was either keep Whitlock, or launch the site. They chose the latter.

If you look at the talent over there thus far at Meadowlark, a lot of them are former ESPN talent who Skipper went to bat for and got pushed out of the company after he left. Pitaro came in and fukked all of that up, which is why you're seeing the issues that's going on now with them. His biggest mistake was coming in and telling the talent to "stick to sports" and then so much happening in the country after that made that made that mantra not possible anymore. That alienated talent right there.

A lot of those talents are finally learned to follow the SAS blueprint of the more jobs you have, the less expendable you are. Just sticking to one sport/show just isn't going to cut it these days unless you're a tenured employee enough to get away with it like TK who only does PTI these days.

Contrary to popular belief, The Undefeated "technically" isn't an all black site as they have quite a few editors and writers that are of different races. I could be wrong, but I do think the head man there right now is white as he was the one who replaced Howard Bryant I believe. They're just able to get away with it because don't actually pay attention (not even our own people) to the site to know the actual truth.

Now with Whitlock, they gave two years and was off hands the entire time, which I think contributed to him not actually getting the site off the ground. It wasn't until they actually replaced him and started paying attention to what was going on, that the site was finally able to get off the ground.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

Pretty much a boomer being forced out the door since they can get somebody young to do the same exact job for 1/3 the price

I’m going to go with this

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Max Kellerman may leave First Take, and Stephen A. Smith could debate rotating replacements

Makes sense now why SAS was trying to work with Skip again as he was trying to get Max out of the paint lol.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Kellerman going to first take was a WOAT move for fans of him. He became a caricature and a waste of his intelligence, it broke up a GOAT radio duo with him and Marcellus and it led to Marcellus going full c00n on fox. So many tragedies

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Kellerman going to first take was a WOAT move for fans if him. He became a caricature and a waste of his intelligence, it broke up a GOAT radio duo with him and Marcellus and it led to Marcellus going full c00n on fox. So many tragedies

Now they're talking about stripping him of his own radio show and moving him to morning radio with Jay and Keyshawn. Talk about a demotion

 

[Straw Hat Luffy]

I actually like the SAS/Max duo when Stephen A. Isn’t belittling Max

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Now they're talking about stripping him of his own radio show and moving him to morning radio with Jay and Keyshawn. Talk about a demotion

That’s actually not. The morning drive time show is a more coveted spot and most people don’t do it solo. I don’t listen to it currently, but being familiar with key and jay, max would easily be the best host on that show.