Broadcaster Karl Ravech was recently fired after 33 years at ESPN, with little thanks from the network. Suzy Kolber knows what that feels like.
For 27 years, Suzy Kolber did just about everything for the network. She was one of the original anchors of ESPN 2 when it launched in 1993. She hosted ESPN’s NASCAR Countdown. She covered the X Games, Grand Slam tennis events, and hosted horse racing events. She was a sideline reporter on Monday Night Football, a reporter on College GameDay, and anchored SportsCenter. And finally, she was the host of Monday Night Countdown.
On Thursday, she appeared on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch and shed significant light on her 2023 firing, what she has been doing since, and what her plans are for the future.
“I’ve gone through the whole range of emotions,” Kolber told Deitsch. “Initially, I was engaged with everything the way I’d always been. I think that was just a level of comfort I needed. I love Monday Night Countdown. I love everybody on it. This is my family. I’m cheering everybody on. Then maybe it feels like a bad breakup in a relationship.
“I had a year there where it was sort of, you know what, it just feels kind of painful and I’m not enjoying watching. I think I’m back now. I will be cheering everyone on who is doing the Super Bowl. But for a chunk there, it was painful.”
Why hasn’t Suzy Kolber said anything about her firing until now?
One of the reasons Suzy Kolber has been so quiet since her firing from ESPN, she revealed on the podcast, is because she had a year left on her contract with ESPN when she was let go.
“About a week before, I asked [ESPN chairman] Jimmy Pitaro if we could talk,” Kolber recalled. “I always thought he was very gracious and he did not BS me. He said, ‘Suzy, there’s a whiteboard and your name’s on it and I don’t really know for sure right now, but your name is on it.’ So, again, not shocked, I tried to prepare myself.
“The morning of the layoffs I came out of the gym. [Former ESPN executive] Norby Williamson and I go all the way back to the beginning of the launch of ESPN 2 and SportsNight, and I always thought we had a pretty good relationship. I was glad Norby was the one who was making the call. He texted me and said, ‘Can we talk?’ I texted back because I had one year left to go on my contract and said, ‘Yes, we can talk a year from now.’ And then I said, ‘Seriously, can you give me a chance to get home and just get myself prepared?'”
She was told not to disparage ESPN on her way out
“From a legal standpoint, the conversation needed to include certain things and be very black and white,” Kolber continued. “The only part where I lost it a little and may have cursed was when he said, ‘You know, you may not say anything disparaging about the company or we can take the last year of your contract,’ which I had a year to go.
“That’s when I kind of lost it. I said, ‘I have been the ultimate good soldier. All the crap I’ve seen, I have never said one negative thing about this company. Like, do you think I’m going to start now?’ He was like, ‘Oh, you know, I had to say that.'”
Kolber thought taking a pay cut would save her job
Suzy Kolber also revealed that she took a 39% pay cut in an effort to make it to the end of her contract.
“At the time, ESPN was negotiating with a superstar, up-and-coming, younger person and I knew they were offering to triple that person’s salary, and here they were asking me to take a huge cut,” she said.
“I thought about how much I loved what I’m doing. I loved the people I worked with. I took all of that into consideration and said it’s not about the money. I want to keep doing this.”
When it was all over, Williamson informed Kolber that ESPN was “not going to say anything” about her dismissal or her 27 years of employment at the network. The network never told her why.
“I just thought after 27 years of, I was the first person hired for the launch of ESPN 2. I was the first person assigned to the X Games,” she said. “I went and shot the marketing tape for it. Monday Night Football’s move to ESPN, I was part of some pretty big franchises. You’re not going to say a word? Not thanks for 27 years, just acknowledge it? I didn’t understand that.”
Now, she’s back with a new show
As an executive producer and on-air host for a new interview series on the Scripps Sports Network called The Originals, which features athletes who resist simple explanation, Kolber is making a comeback to the spotlight.
Founder of the Savanna Bananas Jesse Cole, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters, Hilary Knight, Steve Young, and Mexican flag football player Diana Flores will all be interviewed for the show’s six-episode run, which premieres on Tuesday.