The December resignation of ESPN chief John Skipper led to speculation of imminent harassment scandals, but the truth was far more complicated. Skipper now reveals that threats of extortion from his cocaine dealer placed both ESPN and his family in an “untenable position.”
There are many ESPN channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN First Take where they just show that show on a loop forever. (It’s mostly watched in prisons as a form of enhanced interrogation technique.) But the greatest of all ESPN channels is ESPN 8, or “The Ocho,” as it’s known to devotees. It’s the ESPN devoted to the finest in seldom seen sports.
I’m a freshman in high school. After months of legal proceedings, the jury finally reaches a verdict in the O.J. Simpson case. For the only time in my four years of secondary education, everything stops. Several classes worth of kids pile into the only room on the hall with a cable television. The room is packed. Kids are literally sitting on each other's laps because there’s nowhere else for them to go. It gets quiet.
Sports fans, in particular fans of nationally renowned (and occasionally peeped on) sportscaster Erin Andrews were likely dismayed last week to learn that their favorite blonde would no longer call ESPN home, but instead would seek employment elsewhere. A week later, there's been little apart from speculation, but where will Andrews next take up a permanent position?