Suzy Kolber had enough warning to prepare herself for the possibility that ESPN was about to end her 27-year run with the network. What she was not prepared for was how cold the ending would feel.
Kolber, now 62, opened up on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast about the 2023 layoffs that removed her from ESPN alongside other prominent names including Steve Young, Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose.
The first sign came when ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told her directly that her future was uncertain.
“He said, ‘Suzy there’s a whiteboard and your name’s on it. I don’t really know for sure right now but your name is on it,’” Kolber recalled.
She later spoke to another executive but never received reassurance that she was safe.
“I remember that day sitting next to my daughter in the kitchen,” Kolber said. “For years I’ve said ‘You never know.’ And I sat down next to her and I cried. And I said, ‘I think this is really happening.’”
The call that finally pushed Kolber over the edge By the time then-ESPN executive Norby Williamson called, Kolber said she was calm because she already understood where things were heading.
That changed when Williamson told her she could not say “anything disparaging about the company” or risk losing the final year of her contract. Kolber said that was when she “lost it.”
“I have never said one negative thing about this company,” she recalled telling him. “Do you think I’m going to start now?”
The harder blow came next. Kolber said Williamson told her ESPN was “not going to say anything” publicly about her departure or acknowledge her 27 years with the company.
“I’m a human, it just, that hurt. Why not?” she said.
Kolber struggled to understand why there would be no public recognition after a career that included being the first person hired for ESPN2, working the X Games and becoming part of ESPN’s move into Monday Night Football.
“You’re not going to say a word? Not thanks for 27 years, just acknowledge it?” she said. “I didn’t understand that.”
Pay cut not enough to save her job
Kolber also revealed that she had already accepted a 39% salary reduction before the layoffs.
“I did think the 39% cut was going to get me to the end,” she said.
It did not. Instead, Kolber wrote her own farewell message. Once it was published, she said she spent “three to five minutes of full on sobbing.” Three years later, she is moving forward with a new project.
Kolber is executive producing and hosting The Originals, a Scripps Sports Network interview series featuring names including Steve Young, Lisa Salters, Jon Gruden, Hilary Knight and Jesse Cole.
The show premieres September 15 at 8 p.m. ET. Kolber also hasn’t completely closed the door on returning to live sports television. “I’m not saying no and I would never say never,” she said.
After the way her ESPN chapter ended, however, getting back behind a live desk is no longer the thing defining what comes next.
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