One former ESPNer commented on the company’s focus on cable television, calling it similar to “Stockholm Syndrome.” On the latest edition of South Beach Sessions, host Dan Le Batard sat down with Rachel Nichols, a former two-time ESPN employee who left the company due to repercussions from a leaked phone call that was recorded without her knowledge.
In the audio, Nichols lamented that her position on NBA coverage was being given to then-colleague Maria Taylor among other grievances. This ultimately led to her removal from NBA Finals coverage, her show The Jump getting canceled, and her and Taylor leaving the company entirely.
Rachel Nichols told Le Batard that the move away from ESPN opened her eyes to the way the company approaches media and how the company may be a step behind when it comes to digital media.
“When you’re in that ESPN world, there is a lot of sort of Stockholm syndrome of, this is the only thing that matters,” said Nichols, according to Awful Announcing. “Cable television is still where things are at. I didn’t really understand that what had been the downsides and the restrictions of living your life [at one company].”
Nichols cites one example when an ESPN exec said nobody would watch The Jump because it was now only a digital property. “Taking a step back allowed me to really see this new media world and realize, ‘Oh, I’ve been here before,” Nichols said.
“I lived through the change and shift of newspapers. And I lived through the dinosaur days of, you’re going to have to shift to a different industry. And I was able to recognize, oh, this is happening again. And I don’t think I was outside of it enough to fully see that, and now it’s just so obvious.”
Rachel Nichols has kept herself busy since departing ESPN. Outside of working for Monumental Sports Network, a sports broadcasting company located in Washington D.C., dueling Skip Bayless on FS1’s Undisputed, and hosting Headliners on Showtime, she makes routine appearances on the All The Smoke podcast and hosts a YouTube-exclusive show for Showtime called Bully Ball alongside DeMarcus Cousins. Headliners is also available on Paramount+.
