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Mike Greenberg remains one of the big faces of ESPN, making millions of dollars per year, while the Worldwide Leader in Sports lays off a bunch of talent on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro confirmed in a company-wide email on Tuesday that several different employees are being laid off, in part due to the network's acquisition of NFL Network. Prominent analysts like Ryan Clark, Cam Newton and Bart Scott are being let go, along with announcer Karl Ravech and NFL insider Tom Pelissero, among other people. Stephen A. Smith, one of the faces of ESPN - reportedly making around $20 million per year - is not happy.
“Ryan Clark, someone I consider to be arguably the best NFL analyst in America, is no longer with ESPN,” Smith said. “I can’t even tell y’all how much that hurts. He’s a man, so he’ll handle it the way men do. But I’m going to miss him, and I’m not happy about this decision one bit. The bosses know I’m not happy about this decision. I’ve made that very, very clear.”
ESPN hasn't publicly released any confirmations on the layoffs, though internally, an email was sent to all employees.
“Team: Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement read, per Awful Announcing. “As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today. While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition. Even in moments like these, the strength of ESPN comes from our people, our teamwork and our shared mission to serve sports fans.”
As ESPN goes through this latest round of layoffs, some fans are blaming the big names - Smith, Pat McAfee and even Mike Greenberg - as the network seems to focus more and more resources on those three names.
Greenberg, who is all over ESPN, faces some blame on Tuesday
Greenberg, who surely earns a huge salary at ESPN, works a ton. He's the host of "Get Up!" " Sunday NFL Countdown" and the NBA Finals.
But, as ESPN seems to constrict its coverage of big events to a handful of people, fans believe that Greenberg and others are partially to blame for what's happening this week, fair or unfair.
"ESPN is firing everyone except Mike Greenberg," one fan wrote.
"I’d trade Karl Ravech for Mike Greenberg any day of the week," another fan wrote.
"ESPN building around Mike Greenberg, Peter Schrager and Pat McAfee lol," one fan added.
"ESPN bout to be 24 hours of Stephen A talking to McAfee. Hosted by Mike Greenberg," one fan joked.
"They really put boring Mike Greenberg on TV and made him one of their top 'personalities' 🤦🏾♂️," one fan added.
This is the reality of today's ESPN, though. The network is clearly going all-in on some top personalities and everyone else is far from secure when it comes to their future on the air.
