You won’t hear any sour grapes from Kenny Mayne. The former SportsCenter anchor was a guest on the SI Media Podcast this week. He told Jimmy Traina that he is okay with the where he is after leaving ESPN.
Mayne described himself as a “salary cap casualty” in May after announcing that he would be let go by the network. He told Jimmy Traina that his wife joked that the following weeks were “The Kenny Mayne Ego Tour.”
“I was getting all these podcast requests and all that, and she’s probably right, there was probably some of that,” Mayne said. “But I didn’t invite it, I wasn’t out ‘Hey, put me on.’”
He told Traina that ESPN asked him to take a 61% pay cut and says that if they had come back with a smaller reduction in pay, he may have been willing to stay. He doesn’t regret the outcome though.
“They made a business decision that they needed to cut back and make more money for Disney, and I was one of the casualties of the salary cap situation. Oh well.”
Kenny Mayne is now creating content for Caesars. He says that he was able to replace the income he lost by leaving ESPN, which is all he wanted. He and his wife have four daughters at varying stages of their education.
He also says there there is no reason anyone should think that he is bitter. He enjoyed his time at ESPN and is grateful for his time there.
“Like I said, I don’t have anyone fronting for me; maybe I’d be smarter if I did. But I feel fine with it. And my story remains the same; truly, there’s no malice. I have so many friends, I stay in touch with most to all of the same ones, I play golf with them still, I’m still in Connecticut. And I wish them well. I watch Monday Night Football. I’m not boycotting ESPN.”
