Mina Kimes recently signed a new contract with ESPN that establishes her as one of the top NFL analysts at the network. Her rise through the sports media industry has been astounding as she’s now one of the most recognizable faces talking about the league whether it’s on NFL Live every weekday, appearances on other ESPN programs, or her work on podcasts and YouTube. But Kimes’ path to the top of ESPN was far from a linear one as we were reminded of this weekend.
Twitter user @ShadowTodd shared a screengrab from an appearance Kimes made years ago on C-Span as a writer for Fortune magazine where she talked about, you guessed it, the railroad industry.
No shade at all to Mina Kimes, she does good work, but this old clip of her on C-SPAN talking about railroad monopolies is a little like seeing the cast of "It's Always Sunny" doing Shakespeare pic.twitter.com/IoymmhG0Xy
— Todd in the Shadows (@ShadowTodd) November 24, 2023
Kimes had a good response:
Hair and makeup saw my The Cure pin and said I got you
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) November 24, 2023
In case you want to spend the last parts of your long Thanksgiving weekend watching a decade-old clip on American railroads from September 2011, here’s the link for your viewing pleasure. And if you want to take that extra step, you can read Kimes’ story at Fortune entitled “Railroads: Cartel or Free Market Success Story?” that still lives online today. Who needs a weekend of football when you can take a deep dive into the freight industry!
This rare find was so good that even the other part of the tweet, Rob McElhenny of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Wrexham fame also had a laugh with Kimes.
No shade at all to @ShadowTodd but I think we can take this to broadway @minakimes https://t.co/ErBmif60OA pic.twitter.com/cwRnqlDl9i
— Rob McElhenney (@RMcElhenney) November 25, 2023
No shade at all to the importance of shining a light on the railroad industry and freight monopolies. But Kimes seems a little more excited to discuss Mike McDaniel’s creative use of motion than she is locomotives. But while Kimes has found her true calling talking about the NFL, she was a darn good business writer in her time, even winning a prestigious writing award for a report on using unauthorized bone cement. It was in 2014 that Kimes signed with ESPN after her time at Fortune and a stop at Bloomberg. And the business world’s loss has been football’s gain.
