What Would a Jason Whitlock Move Say About Fox Sports and ESPN?

It sounds like Jason Whitlock could be on the move again. Yesterday, SBJ’s John Ourand broke the news that Whitlock is negotiating an early exit from ESPN — where his contract runs for “at least another year.” Reportedly, there’s the possibility that this happens as early as in the next few weeks, and Whitlock would then return to Fox Sports to write and appear on FS1.

[UPDATE (10/4): SI’s Richard Deitsch reports that Whitlock and ESPN have “mutually parted ways” after negotiating a buyout a couple weeks ago, and that Whitlock “appears to be a lock to re-join Fox Sports.”]

As most reading this are aware, there was well-publicized strife in the return to ESPN. Multiple takedown pieces from Deadspin’s Greg Howard — and some of the acrimonious relationships that led hires to leak unflattering correspondences — culminated in Whitlock’s ouster from the web site he was brought back to ESPN to launch (and which still hasn’t launched). Since his exit from the site, Whitlock’s written some columns and pinch hit on PTI, but this was not why he was there and doesn’t make sense from either side’s perspective.

Whitlock follows a pattern of departures from ESPN of prominent pundits that’s also included Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann, and Colin Cowherd. Though the individual circumstances are all quite different, it’s notable that Whitlock, Simmons, and Olbermann were the three voices clamoring for Roger Goodell’s resignation last summer, and all remained persistent saboteurs of the Shield.

To whatever extent the NFL critiques are correlative or causative with leaving — and Fox also holds NFL rights, obviously — it feels as though ESPN is pivoting away from outspokenness, at least when it’s also expensive. In a period of just over three months, nearly half of the network’s most high profile, not-a-former-jock*-or-coach opinionists are gone. Dan Le Batard, Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, Stephen A. Smith, and Skip Bayless remain, and ESPN will try to restock in the next year or two off its bench.

The move makes a lot of sense for Fox, who tapped First Take creator Jamie Horowitz to revive the fledgling FS1 (last week, Ty Duffy wrote an extensive piece on the network’s trajectory). The strategy of poaching Cowherd and possibly Whitlock, and elevating Clay Travis, has the potential to create compelling television. Ostensibly by design, that trio will be tasked with straddling and sometimes crossing the line of what coastal progressives deem proper decorum.

SI’s Richard Deitsch often refers to Horowitz as Lord Voldemort. When Fox nabbed Cowherd, Deadspin photoshopped Clay Travis (shortly after his defense of the Confederate flag) into a Klan hood and wrote, “With these two in place, Fox has everything it needs to form a sort of Suicide Squad of race-baiting hot-takers.”

That some will be disgusted with the direction FS1 takes once its pundits are cemented on television — maybe Whitlock would get his own show, maybe he’d be paired regularly with Colin Cowherd, maybe he’d make spot appearances across the network’s programming? — is of little consequence to Fox in the event they’re also tuning in. In an increasingly fragmented sports media landscape, this could prove to be an effective business strategy.

*Whitlock’s Ball State football career notwithstanding