Almost two years ago, reports began to surface about cuts ESPN had started to make amid its on-air talent roster, letting go of personalities such as Keyshawn Johnson, Max Kellerman and Suzy Kolber. Joon Lee, who worked as an MLB reporter at the company, was among the professionals impacted and shared the news in late June 2023, adding that he was excited to see what would be coming next.
In a recent YouTube video, Lee revealed that finding out he had been laid off was a shocking moment that broke his heart but was nonetheless appreciative to have worked his dream job. In fact, he acknowledged that people began to send him messages as if he or someone else he knew had passed away, and while this was not the case, he acknowledged losing a version of himself that had been chasing a dream for his entire adult life.
On top of that, Lee explained that ESPN blocked him from working for two years, leading to feelings of sadness, anger and frustration that prompted him to start watching sports as a fan for the first time since he was 16 years old. Although he did not recognize it at the time, this moment started the draft for a new phase of his life as he consumed sports content from afar and made observations about the business.
“The more that I watched, the more that I read, the more that I scrolled, the more that I felt like something was fundamentally broken in sports today,” Lee said. “Fans were angrier today than ever before in social media and in real life, and the conversations around sports felt stuck. The same hot takes, over and over and over again.”
As sports began to become a source of stress instead of joy, he was asking about what had happened and wondering what would come next. Lee remarked that he had the chance to live out his dream for four years and has been viewing games from afar since that time. In the end, he gathered his thoughts about the direction of the business and articulated his reasoning behind launching a YouTube channel in an attempt to build a community that values joy around sports.
“Sports media is broken,” Lee said. “For decades, it felt like sports were always about more than just who won and who lost and the box score. Sports were a place to tell stories about underdogs and dynasties and heartbreak and redemption, and it feels like, at least right now, the entire industry has lost sight of that. And I’ve been asking myself one question over the course of the last two years as I’ve been unable to work. ‘How do we fix this?’”
Lee referenced the penetration of revenue from gambling companies in the business, causing fans to question the authenticity of coverage they are receiving from reporters. As a result, he explained that he will not be taking any gambling sponsorship deals for his YouTube endeavors. On top of that, he contended that everything across sports media feels the same with hot takes and that shows doing deeper dives are being cancelled. Lee attributed this perceived paradigm as to why independent content creators are successfully emerging on digital platforms and doing things the traditional corners of the industry no longer tackle.
“As a result of where traditional sports media still is, it feels like the majority of fans are still stuck on these same topics that all of us are tired of talking about,” Lee said. “Because of these hot takes, it feels like nobody trusts anyone anymore. From fans to the media to the athletes to the leagues, trust is at an all-time low in sports, and this is hurting everyone involved in sports, and I think we can do better than this.”
As all this is taking place, Lee explained that sports has never been more interesting than it is at the current moment and articulated how it feels as if fans are witnessing history on a nightly basis. Whether it is Shohei Ohtani, Caitlin Clark or Patrick Mahomes achieving monumental milestones and shattering records, sports are filled with compelling superstars emanating domestically and abroad. An issue therein, however, is that most good sports journalism is behind a paywall, making it difficult for the average person to access such content and instead view social media feeds replete with takes.
“I want to make sure that when I’m reporting something or I’m telling a story that you feel like you can trust that I have no exterior motivations motivating me to hold something back or to tell stories a different way,” Lee said. “But most importantly, I want to make sense of what’s happening in the sports world with you because I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around everything that’s changing right now.”
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