Linda Cohn leaving ESPN feels like a generation ago after seeing the number of prominent on-air personalities who were laid off this week.
Cohn mutually agreed to part ways with ESPN last month after a tenure that lasted more than three decades. And as the longest-tenured SportsCenter anchor in ESPN history, Cohn received a proper sendoff that was both deserved and earned. Three weeks later, however, ESPN reminded everyone how coldblooded the industry is when they executed their latest round of layoffs. And while everyone understands layoffs are part of the business, ESPN has been condemned for the manner in which they handled those cuts.
“The ESPN layoffs were awful. You hate to see anybody lose their job,” Cohn said on her recently launched YouTube show. “It’s all bad. When you’re laid off, when you’re fired, when your salary is cut, when you have to think, ‘what do I do now?’ Well, the ESPN layoffs, that was awful. What made it even worse, if that could be possible, was the way ESPN PR handled it, or mishandled it, because they treated everyone on this latest firing list with zero respect. Zero. Beginning with Ryan Clark.”
“That whole PR nightmare could have been avoided if Ryan Clark was alerted, how about the night before? And how about before he took the set for NFL Live?” Cohn continued. “If you knew there were media outlets going to break the news and you were concerned about Ryan finding out by looking at his phone during the show, then why didn’t you just tell him before the show? That is bumbling and fumbling. That buffoonery electrified this story in a negative way even more.”
Clark was arguably the most prominent personality laid off by ESPN this week, but it was the fact that he learned his fate during a commercial break on NFL Live that garnered the most headlines. ESPN learned Outkick was set to report the news on Clark’s looming layoff while he was on NFL Live Monday afternoon. Not wanting to risk Clark’s phone blowing up with news of the layoff while he was on-camera, ESPN decided to let him go during a commercial break.
Cohn also noted the ripple effect of everyone else becoming an afterthought amid ESPN’s blunder with Clark, as Karl Ravech, David Lloyd and others probably didn’t receive the attention they deserved this week. The other fallout from the layoffs has been Pat McAfee and Stephen A. Smith receiving blame for the cuts because of their lucrative salaries, blame Cohn believes is unfounded.
“I don’t blame them. That narrative is dumb,” Cohn insisted. “That’s not the reason. It’s ESPN having to pay these bills and living in a world in this broadcasting field, in sports, where you have to compete. And they don’t want to be left behind. ESPN does not want to be left behind.”
No one is arguing with the need for ESPN to reallocate how they’re spending their money. If the need to spend more on top stars who pay for themselves and increasingly expensive game rights means a need to spend less on other on-air talent, then that is just the way the business is trending. But that doesn’t excuse ESPN from lacking foresight and handling this round of layoffs as poorly as they did.
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