Former ESPN president John Skipper claims his downfall from the network was caused by an extortion plot over cocaine.
Skipper abruptly resigned in December, and now he’s revealed the details of how it went down in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, according to his version of the events.
The disgraced head of ESPN admits to be a cocaine user, but not allowing it to get in the way of his professional work life. Except, that doesn’t really seem to mesh with the part of the interview where he claims the extortion over coke led to him losing his job.
Here is the relevant part of the THR interview:
JAM: Again, respectfully, didn’t you just say you were careful about your dealings in this area?
Skipper: Not this time. It turned out I wasn’t careful this time.
JAM: What did they say?
Skipper: They threatened me, and I understood immediately that threat put me and my family at risk, and this exposure would put my professional life at risk as well. I foreclosed that possibility by disclosing the details to my family, and then when I discussed it with Bob, he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign.
ESPN’s downfall and problems just keep getting crazier and crazier. You have Jemele Hill calling Trump a white supremacist, and the president of the network is losing his job over drugs. ESPN loves lecturing the rest of the country on morality and politics, and the head of the company couldn’t keep his job because of problems with drugs. The hypocrisy is too rich to overlook.
You literally couldn’t make this stuff up in a movie script. The movie about the rise and fall of ESPN someday is going to be absolutely lit.