Sports

Kenny Mayne Says He Was Put On ESPN’s ‘Twitter Watchlist’ After Political Tweets

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  • Kenny Mayne shares that ESPN has a ‘Twitter watchlist’ and his name was on it.
  • The former SportsCenter anchor explained the list on a recent podcast appearance.
  • Check out more sports stories from BroBible here.

Kenny Mayne announced back in May that he was leaving ESPN after a 27-year-run with the four-letter network. We quickly learned that ESPN forced him out by asking him to take a giant 61% pay cut. Since the dust has settled a bit and Mayne has been away from ESPN for a few months now, he’s revealing some insider information about the worldwide leader.

Mayne recently spoke with The Ringer and did share that his ESPN exit came down to the network asking him to take a massive pay cut. He then revealed details about his conversations and interactions with ESPN studio production EVP Norby Williamson, who is in charge of SportsCenter and all other shows on the network.

This is when he revealed that ESPN has an internal ‘Twitter watchlist and his name was put on it after firing off some political tweets. Mayne said that he didn’t have the courage to go full Jemele Hill on Twitter due to a fear of being fired, but shared that he was among the “group of people that watch your Twitter.”

Mayne specifically remembered being scolded by Williamson after sharing a tweet about former President Donald Trump received a cleaner bill of health than he expected.

“I got a Norby call on that one,” Mayne said, while also explaining another instance Williamson got onto him, saying “Why do you have to do the politics?” Mayne responded with, “Because I have four daughters and a wife and I want to look at myself in the mirror.”

Williamson has worked at the network since 1985 and is clearly in the camp that ESPN viewers want to hear about sports, nothing else, whether that be on Twitter or during shows. If you’ve watched ESPN at all over the last five or so years you know that ESPN has most definitely not stuck to sports.

The difference here is that Jemele Hill was actually promoted while firing off extremely political, race-driven tweets before leaving the network. Mayne, on the other hand, was forced out.