Jason Whitlock Fired From His Own ESPN Vanity Site
Bill Simmons was fired from Grantland by ESPN earlier this year. Under Simmons’ stewardship, his vanity site became a popular and critically-acclaimed mix of sports and pop culture. The site attracted well-known contributors like Chuck Klosterman, Wesley Morris, and Brian Koppelman, and helped launch the careers of new faces like the Men In Blazers. Simmons helped create 30 For 30 Films, and earned enough of a following that ESPN added him to their NBA coverage. After numerous incidents of criticizing Roger Goodell and ESPN’s controversial daytime talk-show fare, ESPN head John Skipper announced he personally wasn’t renewing Simmons’ contract. His ouster resulted in heaps of praise and gratitude from Grantland’s writers toward Simmons, and a leaked e-mail revealed his last words to be a message of pride in his staff and encouragement for them to continue their excellence.
Jason Whitlock’s vanity site went…differently. In fact, it doesn’t even exist yet.
Whitlock rejoined ESPN from Fox Sports in 2013, around the same time as Keith Olbermann, who admitted to SI’s Richard Dietsch he was hired to “smother the eggs” of Fox Sports 1 “before they hatch.” Skipper wanted Whitlock to head his idea of a “Black Grantland,” which would obviously come from an African-American prospective. What happened next, as detailed by Deadspin’s Greg Howard, was a disaster. After 15 months of failing to attract big names like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Howard Bryant, Whitlock’s first hire was a 50-year-old white sportswriter who wants to ban black people from using “The N-Word.” In February, the site was given the name “The Undefeated,” a confusing title for those unfamiliar with the Maya Angelou quote it’s based on. Internal documents included lessons in grade school-level composition, long-winded anecdotes from Whitlock’s career (including his perceived grievances), and a set of quotes of which half are from people like Angelou, Ralph Wiley, Calvin Hill, and Coach K: the other half were Whitlock’s. He accused an editor of being disloyal to him for pushing an article on the “Blurred Lines” legal case, and fired a female assistant for speaking before being spoken to in a meeting he wasn’t even a part of. This incident and others led ESPN HR to find Whitlock in violation of their Conduct Policy, citing his inability to “treat coworkers in a professional, courteous, and respectful manner,” but allowed him to remain editor. And The Undefeated has still failed to launch after numerous delays, including promised dates of the most-recent NBA All-Star Game and this month, and only five “teaser” stories from the staff are online.
The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir reported Whitlock’s removal from The Undefeated on Friday, and ESPN released a statement later that afternoon:
Jason Whitlock will now be entirely focused on what he does best: creating distinctive and compelling content, which will live across various ESPN platforms…Since returning to ESPN, Jason has been instrumental in assembling the foundation of a strong editorial team, formulating the vision for the project and collaborating with our digital product team to develop the blueprint for the site.
Read more at The New York Times.
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