ESPN reportedly won't renew Bomani Jones' contract
ESPN is not planning to renew Bomani Jones' contract when it expires on Monday, Front Office Sports reports.
Jones spoke with FOS for the report. He didn't directly confirm his departure, but said that ESPN hasn't shown interest in renewing his deal. Jones also addressed the state of business in sports media, particularly at ESPN, which has laid off some of its highest-profile personalities in recent weeks.
“The economic fate of people in sports media is getting dicier and dicier by the day,” Jones told FOS. “I think the ESPN layoffs were the beginning of it in a lot of ways. Seeing what happened [with] the New York Times shutting down their sports department, and they moved those people to other desks. But at some point they’re probably going to deem those people to be surplus, and they’re not going to be there anymore.”
NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy and longtime anchor/reporter Suzy Kolber were among ESPN cuts announced in June. The cuts arrived not long after ESPN signed personality Pat McAfee to a lucrative contract to lure him from FanDuel. The layoffs were part of larger cuts at parent company Disney, whose CEO Bob Iger announced in February would slash 7,000 jobs.
Iger returned to helm the company in November amid plummeting stock value in a changing media landscape after a previous stint as CEO. He's expressed a willingness to overhaul Disney's business relationship with ESPN while describing the network's legacy cable distribution model as "broken."
Jones has worked for ESPN in several roles over multiple stints since 2004. Known for his capacity to effectively discuss sports at their base level while navigating their larger impact on culture, politics, race, economics and beyond, Jones possesses one of the strongest voices at ESPN.
He currently hosts "The Right Time with Bomani Jones," which started as a daily radio show and has evolved in to a thrice-weekly podcast. Per FOS, his is the second-highest rated podcast among more than 35 at ESPN. Jones has been on vacation in July. It's unclear if the podcast will air again on ESPN.
Jones has also worked as a columnist and TV host at the network. He was a regular on the network's afternoon debate show "Around the Horn" and co-hosted "Highly Questionable" alongside Dan Le Batard and "High Noon" with Pablo Torre.
Le Batard has since left ESPN amid his own high-profile departure and started podcast and media network Meadowlark Media alongside ex-ESPN president John Skipper, who oversaw much of Jones' previous work at ESPN. Torre has since joined Meadowlark as a contributor.
Jones did not address any potential next steps with FOS. News of his pending ESPN departure arrives weeks after reports that his HBO show "Game Theory" was canceled after two seasons.
