Another round of layoffs marks yet another inflection point for ESPN. Over a decade of remarkable churn, ESPN has parted ways with numerous front-facing and behind-the-scenes personnel once thought integral to the network’s operations. With each unceremonious ouster — from Ron Jaworski and John Clayton to Jeff Van Gundy and Suzy Kolber (with scores more Howie Schwabs in-between) ESPN has made it abundantly clear what is valued and what is not.
To that end, a few thoughts on some of the characteristics not much valued in Bristol:
Stability (and chemistry)
When Jeff Van Gundy made his ESPN/ABC debut in May 2007 — just weeks after his firing during the playoffs from the Houston Rockets — he, Mike Breen and Mark Jackson were the company’s fifth-different lead NBA broadcast team in as many years. Outside of Jackson’s brief stint coaching the Golden State Warriors, they would stay together for the next sixteen. That level of continuity, particularly for a three-man booth, is rare in this industry and unprecedented in the NBA.
Van Gundy in particular called 95 of the past 96 NBA Finals games (missing Game 1 of the 2022 series due to illness), a span that includes every Finals game ever played by LeBron James. He may not have been the greatest NBA analyst, sometimes spending valuable game time on complaints, shtick or idle observations. (He was more restrained in his first foray into television with TNT.) Yet he was a constant on the NBA’s biggest games in a way that no previous analyst had ever been, akin to a Tim McCarver or Billy Packer. Generally, tenures of such length end with at least some semblance of a send-off rather than a Friday morning phone call.
While Van Gundy was prone to on-air digressions — to the point of frequent social media parody — he was a key reason why the broadcast team was more than the sum of its parts. Jackson in particular is a far better television presence alongside Van Gundy than without him (surely one of the reasons why ESPN added Van Gundy in 2007, after nearly a full season of Jackson working with Breen solo). It is hard to imagine that Jackson would have the same chemistry with JJ Redick, Richard Jefferson or Doris Burke than with Van Gundy, his former coach and adversary in the 1990s.
Dependability
Suzy Kolber was part of the Bristol DNA. There are not many people left in this business who were on the set of ESPN2’s Sports Night, a show that featured the late Stuart Scott and a pre-punditry Keith Olbermann. She was not quite a constant — briefly leaving the network to join Fox Sports — but outside of Chris Berman there was no more familiar face on ESPN’s NFL coverage. From the sidelines of Sunday and Monday Night Football to the on-site Monday Night Countdown studio, Kolber gave the kind of professional effort night in and night out that is easy to take for granted in an industry that caters to bigger personalities: a proverbial ‘pro’s pro’ under any circumstance, from anchoring studio coverage during Damar Hamlin’s collapse to dealing with on-air advances from an inebriated Joe Namath.
Between her 27-year tenure and the quality of her work — she was arguably the best of ESPN’s three NFL studio hosts — one would think she would not be expendable. Yet time and time again ESPN has shown that quality is not a factor in these decisions.
Persistence
It may be hard for some to recall that Max Kellerman — not Tony Reali — was the original host of Around the Horn. The show had a much sharper edge back then and almost certainly would not have survived as long as it has had Reali not taken the reins. Kellerman’s departure for an ill-fated Fox Sports Net vehicle called “I, Max” could have been the end of his career. Instead, he found his way back to ESPN and worked his way up the ranks until he ended up on the network’s flagship morning show “First Take” alongside Stephen A. Smith.
Whatever one thinks of the job, Kellerman played Smith’s foil effectively, sparring in on-air viral confrontations that resonated on social media. Yet it was not enough to Smith’s liking, and he was soon shunted off of the show. He got his own vehicle “This Just In” and a role on ESPN’s morning radio show, but the writing was on the wall as soon as he lost the “First Take” gig. At ESPN, there is only so far one can rise up the ladder before the executives look around, shrug, and decide that someone else can do the same thing for less money.
Loyalty
It is no coincidence that ESPN’s “win-a-role-on-SportsCenter” reality show was titled “Dream Job.” The show debuted in an era when the network’s cultural cachet was arguably at its highest point (or, at worst just a bit off of the Patrick-Olbermann peak). Parents named their children “ESPeN” or “Bristol” in tribute. Whatever the reasons, from gripes about politics to gripes about LeBron to gripes about the Cowboys, the era of ESPN fandom is assuredly over. So too, in the era of plunging cable distribution and Tiktok, is the era of ESPN being a destination. Joon Lee, in announcing that he was laid off on Friday, referred to working at ESPN as a childhood dream. His would seem to be the final generation for which that could possibly be true. Who dreams of working for ESPN in an era where SportsCenter’s primary public faces are its Twitter and Instagram feeds? Moreover, who dreams of working for a company with such tremendous turnover?
ESPN’s layoffs have shown time and time again that the company — like so many others — does not value quality of work or years of service. It values brand names with big followings, like Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee. Fair enough. The problem for ESPN comes if and when enough of those brand names realize that they do not need the one-time “Worldwide Leader in Sports” to build their media empires. The next Stephen A. Smith is not going to build his brand on an ESPN morning show, but on a social media page. At that point, having given up on all of the other values, it is hard to imagine what ESPN will have left outside of the games themselves.
In that respect, ESPN will have plenty of company. The competing sports media outlets are not much concerned with establishing an overarching culture. The eras of Roone Arledge at ABC Sports and Dick Ebersol at NBC are long gone. You air the games, generate some contrived viral content during the week and call it a day. Perhaps the problem here is the vestigial esteem in which so many seem to hold ESPN. The decision makers seem to have realized sooner than a number of viewers, media and even employees that the “Worldwide Leader” is really nothing special.
