Why Olbermann Would Have Trouble Returning to Major Sports Broadcasting Networks
Ubiquitous
In the aftermath of Keith Olbermann’s abrupt departure from MSNBC, some are
speculating on whether he’ll end up at another network or return to sports
broadcasting.
But Olbermann fans shouldn’t hold their breath, at least if they hope he’ll go
back to work for former employer ESPN, SportsGrid reported Saturday. It’s
likely that Olbermann has also exhausted his options with Fox as an employment
option, having ended his tenure at Fox Sports Net with News Corp. CEO Rupert
Murdoch firing him and calling him “crazy.”
Jim Miller, author of a book on the ins and outs of ESPN, tweeted Saturday
that ESPN insiders said Olbermann “would not be returning to the network.”
Olbermann, who anchored at ESPN from 1992 to 1997 and co-hosted a radio show
in 2005, instigated trouble while employed there. In 1997, he was suspended
for two weeks after making an unauthorized appearance on Comedy Central’s “The
Daily Show.” During the appearance, Olbermann made negative comments about
Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN’s headquarters. Olbermann said Bristol was a
“godforsaken place.”
While delivering Cornell University’s 1998 commencement address, Olbermann
told graduates that his ESPN position gave him “dry heaves” and would “make
[him] ashamed, make [him] depressed, make [him] cry.”
In 2002, Olbermann wrote in a Salon.com column that he was shocked and sorry
to learn that he’d previously brought fellow anchor Suzy Kolber to tears while
at ESPN.
“I now read with horror of my ESPN2 co-host, Ms. Kolber, sequestering herself
in the women’s bathroom and weeping over how I treated her,” Olbermann wrote.
After ESPN, Olbermann had a three-year stint with Fox Sports Net, but was
fired by Murdoch, who called him crazy.
“I fired him five years ago…He was crazy,” Murdoch said.
In 2004, Olbermann implied that Fox Sports Net was the poor man’s version of
ESPN, according to a Cornell Sun report.
“Fox Sports was an infant trying to stand [in comparison to ESPN],” Olbermann
said. “But on the broadcast side there was no comparison — ESPN was the bush
leagues.”
During a 2007 appearance on the “Late Show,” host David Letterman asked
Olbermann, “What is it about you? You seem to burn bridges wherever you
leave.”
Olbermann said of his relationship with ESPN, “I don’t burn bridges, I burn
rivers. If you burn a bridge, you can possibly build a new bridge, but if
there’s no river any more, that’s a lot of trouble. I just try to run the
place.”
In that same interview, Olbermann added that he was banned from ESPN’s main
campus in Bristol.
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