After 23 years, Neil Everett bid SportsCenter and ESPN adieu on Friday. Everett joined The Worldwide Leader in 2000 and had co-anchored the show with Stan Verrett from Los Angeles since 2009.
Neil’s exit comes amid a downsizing in the workforce at ESPN, part of a broader decrease in employees across The Walt Disney Co.
“This is the end of the line for me,” Everett said at the conclusion of Friday night’s show. “I’m not on social media, but Stan has told me that some of you have left some memorable tweets. And I appreciate that because that’s what you do. You do this to entertain you all out there and entertain yourself.”
Neil had been very public throughout his career that he didn’t have a Twitter account like the vast majority of his other ESPN colleagues. He often read “hashtag” on the air as “hashbrown.” But he did remember hearing about a particular tweet since news of his exit became public.
“It said, ‘I’ve been watching SportsCenter religiously for 20 years, and I’ve never heard of Neil Everett,'” Neil said.
“Only Neil!” Verrett responded. Stan said it had been a pleasure working with Everett for so long.
“Love is a long road,” Stan added. “I’ll see you down it.”
Everett plans to work on some other projects he has in the works moving forward, as well as try to grow his current role on TV with the Portland Trail Blazers.
