Who Are the 100 People Currently Banned From ESPN?
ESPN, Erin Andrews, Media Gossip/Musings July 27th. 2009, 9:00am
Mike Freeman, who famously authored the gripping Uncensored History of ESPN, wrote in his column at CBS Sports weekend that the WWL’s “banned” list has swollen to 100 “mostly journalists” in the wake of some reporting on the Erin Andrews hotel video saga last week. Two journalists who are almost certainly “banned”: TJ Simers of the LA Times (left) and Jason Whitlock of the KC Star (napping on the right).
The network’s banning of individuals (and now entire media organizations) who do something with which the network disagrees has also now reached ridiculous numbers. According to several people at ESPN, there are as many as 100 people — mostly journalists — who have either been banned or are currently banned by ESPN. The number could be higher.
(I’m informed the banned list is different from ESPN’s enemies list, which I’ve written about before. Not exactly sure why, though the enemies list is some sort of super-banned list, like the FBI’s most wanted.)
Before delving into “never go against the family,” while trying to take a stab at the 100 names, a few readers in the last few months have asked us if we have been banned from ESPN due to some of the stuff that’s gone on at this website (which is why we find it comical when the usual schnooks write that we aspire to get back to ESPN, where we once freelanced). We’re daily watchers of the Blog Buzz segment on Sportscenter and to the best of our recollection, only two of the blogs in the Sports Media Challenge’s Top 25 haven’t been mentioned: 1. Deadspin, 2. The Big Lead. [UPDATE: Ok, maybe we haven't seen every Blog Buzz. Per Duffy: "AJ did make it into the Blog Buzz when he wrote about the Spelling Bee. Josh Elliot did mention you on air. Not sure if he was slapped with a ruler afterward.]
We emailed ESPN inquiring about the banned list, and we’ll update this post when we get a response.
Now onto guessing actual media members who might be on the banned list: Jay Glazer (Fox Sports), Jeff Pearlman (SI), and Phil Mushnick (NY Post).
Worldwide leader of the ban playing familiar tune (CBS Sports)
82 Responses to “Who Are the 100 People Currently Banned From ESPN?”
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July 27th, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Brett Favre? Oh, right… BANNED…
July 27th, 2009 at 9:12 AM
is the NHL considered just 1 person?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:14 AM
um…Harold Reynolds?!@?!
July 27th, 2009 at 9:15 AM
I wish they would ban Stuart Scott and Mike & Mike.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Leitch and Daulerio
July 27th, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Being on the banned list.
That’s a bannin’.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Rob Dibble? Sean Salisbury? Keith Olberman?
(otherwise known as anyone significantly affiliated with the old Dan Patrick Show)
July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 AM
i can’t believe mushnick hasn’t carpet-bombed bspn (yet) for banning the post. that moved seemed like it was right in his wheelhouse.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 AM
you’re setting up your own demise if you start to keep an active enemies list. eventually they’re banned and enemies list will hamstring them.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Norm McDonald?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Here’s to hoping you’re not on the banned list, TBL. Banning of any kind is petty and stupid.
Hey has anyone seen Hef?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Did Jay Glazer do something in the past two weeks? He was on PTI just after UFC 100, talking MMA with Bob Ryan. Riveting, riveting stuff.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
i mean, really, after last week, isn’t being on bspn’s banned list a badge of honor for any self-respecting scribe?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Banned speculatin’ about who’s on the banned list, oh you better believe that’s a bannin’.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Jane Fonda, Daniel Schorr, Jack Anderson… Hey, this is Richard Nixon’s enemies list!
July 27th, 2009 at 9:22 AM
The Deadspin people: Daulerio’s name shows up on SportsNation every so often; Leitch is simply not high-profile enough at the moment (he might, though, be “banned” or on an “enemies list.”) And Deadspin has definitely been cited on Blog Buzz.
Has anyone ever seen Posnanski on ESPN? No?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:22 AM
I wish Scoop Jackson was banned
July 27th, 2009 at 9:23 AM
yeah, I don’t think Glazer would be on that list. I know he beat ESPN to the punch and uses facts while he does it, but has that got him banned?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:24 AM
ESPN is on my banned tv watching list until College Football Saturday rolls around in a few weeks.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Has blog buzz been on lately? I noticed it was conspicuously absent from Sportscenter during Big Ben-gate.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Has anyone ever seen Posnanski on ESPN? No?
He has a face for radio. And, he isn’t even hardly on the radio.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:28 AM
/That’s a bannin’
July 27th, 2009 at 9:29 AM
getting ready for all those big ten and sec games?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:29 AM
I think TBL and Deadspin get shafted by the Blog Buzz because we run on a regular 9-5 schedule. So, if there was a big game the night before, we don’t have a screed about it up there in time to be included. Has KSK been on the Blog Buzz?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:29 AM
Because ESPN is like the child who takes his toys and goes home. They can dish out criticism all day long, but the second they get some of their own medicine, they lash out and ban people. Remember when you were young and you thought ESPN was the greatest channel ever? Ignorance truly is bliss. Once you get older and actually see what ESPN is — as opposed to what they say they are — it is kind of sad that you realize that you were being fed bull shit all of those years.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:31 AM
What makes you think he got banned? Maybe he and NickP are on that big commenting computer in the sky.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Could you excerpt a quote from KSK?
I think you’re right about some of the reasons. I think it’s also got to do with links; Deadspin and TBL don’t get linked to, they do the linking.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:33 AM
banned from ESPN for talking bad about the family is one thing …
banned from a blog for being unfunny and starting pissing contests on every post, everyday, are slightly different
July 27th, 2009 at 9:34 AM
a wise man indeed. welcome to the club.
/now celebrating five years of being sportscenter free
July 27th, 2009 at 9:34 AM
GOTG: You could almost pinpoint it to about 5-6 years ago when ESPN began losing it, with the Budwieser Hot Seat, the Coor’s Light Cold Hard Facts, the EA Sports team matchups, Who’s Now, Who’s Next, Playmakers (which wasn’t half bad, but they cancelled b/c NFL wanted them to), the Bear Bryant movie, 3, MNF, etc…the list goes on and on and mot of it happened in the last couple years.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:36 AM
banned from a blog for being unfunny and starting pissing contests on every post, everyday, are slightly different
speaking of, do i need to send you that 10 bucks?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:36 AM
Michael Holly for siding with Kellerman about ATH, any current writer at the NY Post, so that is at least 10, and Skip Bayless?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Remember when you were young and you thought ESPN was the greatest channel ever? Ignorance truly is bliss.
Gods, when I was young, ESPN was the greatest channel ever. They didn’t have any major sports deals (not even baseball), so they showed what they could find, and highlights out the wazoo.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Exactly. I don’t care is ESPN is an entertainment channel. Just don’t bull shit me and say you are a news organization. They are like E! in that they want access to get ratings.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:41 AM
it was. 50 mins of extended highlights, 10 mins of quality analysis on sportscenter. it was the greatest. i miss those days.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:42 AM
That’s a lot of clues.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:46 AM
And I can’t blame reporters who jump ship to go over to ESPN. They get a huge salary bump, national recognition (so the books that many of them write get more exposure) and they can live anywhere they want.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:48 AM
I remember when sportscenter was 30 minutes long. I can remember when I saw an hour long show and thought it was the greatest thing ever. Now I see a sportscenter and watch on it ov tivo because of the hour (or more), only half of it is highlights.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:49 AM
normally baseball tonight is decent for highlights, but when i saw the Red Sox highlights the other night there was no mention of how the runs were scored, just a highlight of two unimportant strikeouts in the 7th inning. terrible.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:49 AM
That’s a lot of clues.
yeah, i’m an unfunny, pissing contest starter who attempts bribes to save being banned. And lame bribes. It’s a clue to how much I’ve got going on in my life.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:52 AM
TBL, some people don’t think I’m funny either. Stupid subjectivity!
July 27th, 2009 at 9:56 AM
it was. 50 mins of extended highlights, 10 mins of quality analysis on sportscenter. it was the greatest. i miss those days.
I remember hauling my ass out of bed on Sunday mornings, so I could watch the Sports Reporters with Dick Schaap. I’m so old, I can remember Schaap, Mr Tony and Bill James talking about how Cal Ripken had no shot at Lou Gehrig’s record, and that they thought Dale Murphy was the likeliest candidate.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:57 AM
i wouldn’t even say it is that much. but different times focus on different things. The 6pm SC tries to come off more as a newscast. Only problem is that they take the first half hour talking about 1 topic, and by then, everyone has turned it off.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:03 AM
ESPN is on my banned tv watching list until College Football Saturday rolls around in a few weeks.
a wise man indeed. welcome to the club.
/now celebrating five years of being sportscenter free
Jimmy
I haven’t watched Sportscenter or much else other than football and basketball in years. OTL and PTI are usually good when I catch them, but that’s about it.
/I miss Charlie Steiner.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:03 AM
and even back then i hated lupica.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Why does Hannah Storm dress like a skank?
@TBL – Have you heard the rumblings about LOST out of Comic-Con?
July 27th, 2009 at 10:05 AM
while that’s not’s too far off, the exact time when bspn started losing it was the day disney bought abc/cap cities.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:07 AM
Where’s Charlie Steiner? Come get your whoopin’ Charlie.
/when SportsCenter commercials were good
July 27th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
nope, nothing about comic con and lost
July 27th, 2009 at 10:09 AM
sad thing is, i am so programmed to surf past bspn i miss a lot of good college basketball games.
i can’t even watch outside the lines and/or PTI. sadly, PTI is predictable. rather, i prefer watching kornheiser and wilbon on the washington post site which is far superior to PTI.
i’ve written this before and i’ll write it again and i am very serious: i watch more of the food network than i do bspn. for a sports network to chase away a sportsaholic like me, they’ve done one helluva job.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:09 AM
I loathe the 6pm sportscenter. I think it is one of the worst shows on TV, and I am dead serious. I watch SC for highlights, not Ed Werder from Cowboys camp, or Sal Pal from Philly.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:10 AM
and even back then i hated lupica.
I remember marveling at how teeny he was, but what a hateful little prick. He was not so ubiquitous on the show then, that’s for sure, and Schaap was in charge.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:14 AM
The only thing ESPN is good at is live sports. When college football begins I will watch the gameday scoreboard at midnight (big Reece Davis fan) and tons of games. I do think ESPN has screwed up College Gameday as well. 2 hours for that show is way too long. I stopped watching that show a while back. Way too much fluff. Though I cannot wait for the season preview show (even though I won’t hear anything I don’t already know). Just hearing college football talk on the tube makes me happy.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:17 AM
ESPN’s college basketball and football coverage is great. i find it hard to knock that.
PTI is boring now. it was great for about the first year or 2.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:18 AM
The only thing ESPN is good at is live sports.
I don’t even think that is 100% true. They are fantastic, in that they air so much live sports, but their coverage is constantly criticized. When they have lesser teams playing, the fill-in chatter is almost never about the game being played.
Plus, they’ve proliferated the useless sideline reporter more than anybody else.
Having live games is great. Their coverage of them isn’t always great.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:19 AM
I remember when CNN had a sports show and they showed mostly highlights. I remember when Fox made their run and they showed mostly highlights. Now they’re both in highlight show heaven. The WWL must know what they’re doing.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:20 AM
When that show came out it was the best thing on tv in terms of sports talk. When TK and MW are on it is still good, but the fill ins (not including LeBetard) are horrible. Watching JA Adande read the teleprompter is hilarious.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:20 AM
I can’t imagine having this much rage about a television network. I guess I realized long ago that no channel is going to cater their programming to my every whim.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:21 AM
PTI is boring now. it was great for about the first year or 2.
Mr Tony quit watching sports.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:22 AM
They will always be criticized, so that doesn’t mean that they are bad. I think that 8/10 live telecasts is good, and I think that is a good percentage.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Except for football season, soccer games, and some of the NBA playoffs, I’ve already banned ESPN from my life too. It’s great!
Gods is right. College Gameday used to rock, as did NFL Primetime for the NFL.
ESPN sure has a way of fucking up everything in which they get involved, but I’ve told you why either in short or at length with expletives every single week I’ve been here for about a year now.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Here’s what I’ve read…
-Boone, Charlie, Juliet and Faraday will appear. My guess would be in flashbacks or some quirky island time jumps with all except Juliet, since they’re all dead. But according to Lindelof and Cuse, most of the time skipping and flashbacks are done. So my other guess would be they’re dead like Christian and (probably) Claire but still alive. Know what I mean? I read somewhere about a month ago that Shannon will also appear.
-Sawyer will revert to his “old ways” after the loss of Juliet.
-Alpert will become a main character and we’ll get backstory.
Here’s some more:
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/lost-comiccon-panel.html
July 27th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
+1.5 Jimmy
Always solid Jimmy, always solid, preach ohhnnnnn brotha!
July 27th, 2009 at 10:33 AM
But the NFL Network sure does come close as does TNT during the NBA playoffs!
And then of course fuck cable you can just go online for highlights or live sports programming any more too.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:37 AM
like jimmy says, you just don’t watch it. which is what i have started to do. i frequent the site mostly for my fantasy teams, or if someone has linked to an article. i do check out ESPNEWS, because there is a good chance that I can see a highlights there if i missed a game. just show me extended highlights. that is all i ask for.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:44 AM
+100
July 27th, 2009 at 10:51 AM
damn, i miss cnnsi, or for that matter cnn’s sports tonight.
even when i was in college, i always watched sports tonight over sportscenter, and that was when sportscenter was truly great.
ah, cnnsi, damn that was a GREAT channel!
July 27th, 2009 at 10:51 AM
I hope this doesnt mean that the whole bomb going off thing doesnt just erase the plane ever crashing on the island, making everyone who died there alive again.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:55 AM
LOL this blog wasn’t around when i did watch that shit. you talk about rage…
i don’t think i, nor sports fans in general, need to apologize when i actually crave intelligent, thoughtful news in my sportscast, not hype from the same half-dozen subjects beaten over my head for hours on end.
i thank my lucky stars every night for the nfl/mlb/nhl network, blogs and video streamed on league websites.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:57 AM
voila!
July 27th, 2009 at 10:59 AM
/blushing.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Cowherd just mentioned Phil Mushnick on his show, does that count?
July 27th, 2009 at 11:02 AM
i’ve heard others say this but i’m of the mind college gameday is about as good as it can get (which frustrates me about bspn. their college football coverage is spectacular, it truly is. why can’t they cover other sports the same way?).
i know i trash bspn a lot on here but i have to give the network props when it gets something right. sans pam ward calling games — granted, that’s a quibble — espn really hits a bullseye on college football coverage.
i know i read where some people think usc gets more than ample attention but i don’t have a problem with that because they are such a dominant program.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:04 AM
ROTFLMAO!!!
talk about a collision of worlds…
July 27th, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Well we know who is not banned…Jason McIntyre…Espn loves them some JMAC. Cowherd can’t stop.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:08 AM
NDub:
thanks for the Lost fix. I read something this morning that flashbacks and forwards won’t be used so it will be more present tense.
watching season 1 all over again after the last season finale is crazy.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:26 AM
He’s on PTI every once in a while for FGM.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:41 AM
fortunately, you occasionally add something to the conversation.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I’m pretty sure Cuse and Lindelof have said it’s not like that because fans have invested so much into these characters and storylines for them to be obsolete and meaningless from seasons 1 through the finale of 4.
No problem at all. I try to get on the message boards and fans sites once every two weeks to see what’s up. After seeing some stuff from Comic Con last year, I knew there would be some good stuff coming out this year. I read, too, that basically season 6 will be like season 1 with all the jungle expeditions/mysteries, etc.
I started rewatching the series last month and am about halfway through season 2. Just a tremendous show.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:59 PM
wait…. Hef and NickP got banned here? I wana hear about this… damn me for being late to this party.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Steve Buscemi didn’t have this problem.
Posnanski just hates doing television in general, but he has written at least one blog entry about how much he hates Around the Horn and how embarassed he would be to be on it.
rewatched the whole thing aftr last season’s finale. The first season is almost boring now, and it’s amazing how much stuff you catch that you didn’t the first time. The continuity guys on that show is amazing.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:15 PM
So did Nick P get banned? I have to start going to church.