Paul Finebaum survived ESPN’s latest round of layoffs, but learning about the cuts in real-time with the rest of us still made for an extremely difficult day.
Last Friday, ESPN laid off about 20 prominent on-air personalities, including Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, Max Kellerman, and Suzy Kolber. Stephen A. Smith recently said even he doesn’t feel safe from future cuts, which means almost no one should.
Paul Finebaum joined the latest episode of The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast and during the interview, he addressed what was “a terrible day at ESPN.” According to Finebaum, he kept tabs on his own job status by refreshing Twitter to find the latest layoff announcements.
“It’s pretty tough, and I say that loving my job and loving the company,” Finebaum said. “But it was the worst day in my 10 years at ESPN. I can’t explain Bob [Iger’s] thinking. I think you have to trust his track record, but it doesn’t really excuse the state of mind that a lot of us, if not all of us, were in.”
According to Finebaum, nobody knew on Friday whether their jobs were safe during what was a painfully slow drip of layoff announcements. Finebaum said he was approached while grabbing lunch Friday afternoon by a woman who said, “You haven’t been laid off yet.” To which Finebaum responded, “Not yet.”
“It’s a special place to work, but it can be cruel,” Finebaum said. “I was probably most touched by Suzy Kolber when I read her announcement that she was leaving. It really got to me because that’s somebody who has been in front of the camera there for 30 years and who broke a lot of barriers down for women and that one really got to me.”
Finebaum did not downplay anyone getting laid off by ESPN last week but noted the feeling might be a little different for a former player or coach who has already experienced being cut, released, or fired from a team.
“Does it make you angry? Yes. But who can you be angry with?” Finebaum continued. “Because the people who were let go, they weren’t taken off the air because they were inefficient or incompetent. It was a business decision, and that’s the part that you have to understand when you work there. There’s good and there’s bad.”
The personalities who were laid off might find some solace in knowing they were taken off the air because of a business decision and not their own inefficiencies. But there’s still no guarantee that they’ll land another prominent on-air opportunity in the immediate future.
