Sixteen years after his departure, and after numerous tumultuous stops in-between, former “SportsCenter” anchor Keith Olbermann is reportedly seeking a return to ESPN.
Olbermann has reached out to ESPN repeatedly over the past year to inquire about a return, The New York Times reported Sunday. According to the report — written by “Those Guys Have All the Fun” author James Andrew Miller — Olbermann has had dinner with ESPN president John Skipper, and his representatives “have campaigned at ESPN for possible opportunities.”
Skipper told The New York Times that Olbermann initiated the dinner and had “clearly” been “looking to see if there was an entry point to come back” to ESPN. Skipper did not feel that there was an appropriate opening for Olbermann, and added that he did not feel “prepared to bring him back.”
With that said, Olbermann was featured prominently in a recent ESPN “30 For 30” short film. It was unclear whether that has anything to do with his recent efforts at a return.
Since leaving ESPN, Olbermann has landed at MSNBC (twice), Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and Current TV. He anchored the 2000 World Series on FOX, contributed to coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics on NBC, and most recently co-anchored NBC’s “Football Night in America” NFL pregame show.
Olbermann’s icy relationship with ESPN has thawed in recent years. He expressed regret for some of his behavior while working for ESPN in a 2002 Salon article. In the mid-2000s, he returned to ESPN on a limited basis as a co-host on ESPN Radio’s “The Dan Patrick Show” — a role that ended after Patrick left ESPN in 2007. After Patrick’s departure, the L.A. Daily News reported that ESPN offered the vacant hosting gig to Olbermann, though that obviously did not come to fruition.
(Sunday’s news from The New York Times)
