Colin Cowherd: Max Kellerman Leaving SportsNation for First Take, Michelle Beadle Not Happy [VIDEO]

Colin Cowherd made a foray into Periscope this afternoon. In the snippet above, he was asked about SportsNation, the television show that he was previously on with Michelle Beadle. He brought up a topic that we reported on last week, which was that replacing Skip Bayless on First Take was Max Kellerman’s job to turn down, and advanced that further.

“Michelle Beadle’s a friend,” Cowherd answered. “Max Kellerman’s leaving that show, he’s gonna be on First Take. It’s a done deal. Well, pretty much … Nobody knows [who is going to replace him on SportsNation]. Beadle likes Kellerman. That’s not gonna play well for Beadle. She’ll be upset. These blogs don’t know what’s going on. This stuff’s all done. … It’s already a done deal. They’re like $100,000 apart in negotiations. He’s leaving SportsNation and Michelle Beadle’s pissed off.”

Now, there are a few things to unpack here. While Cowherd answered this off-the-cuff, it is, by nature of his history, a topic he has knowledge of. While he didn’t specify whether he spoke to Beadle directly or not (and changed tenses in the middle from “will be upset” to “is pissed off”), think about it from her perspective. If you are happy with a co-worker, and he gets effectively poached for a job within the same company, what signal does that send about your program’s relative importance?

When these negotiations are ongoing for months, and your own show’s future line-up is in limbo, that would logically be a tough pill for a competitive person to swallow.  It takes a lot of time and effort to establish chemistry on these shows, and starting over is onerous.

Anyways, for our purposes, it is probably unknowable exactly how unhappy Beadle would be with these developments, if they indeed happen – and it’s not like you can quantify that sort of thing anyway. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and ESPN declined to provide a statement.

The Big Lead’s editor-in-chief, Jason McIntyre, is a contributor to Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock’s weekday FS1 program, Speak for Yourself.  `

[H/T Bobby Burack]