Keith Olbermann mulls return to ESPN

Olbermann possibly interested in return to ESPN

Published on National Sports Journalism Cente... | shared via feedly

Keith Olbermann was in Los Angeles on Friday being deposed for a reported $70 million lawsuit he filed against his most recent employer, Current TV, with the trial expected to begin in May. Whether the court rules in favor of Olbermann or the network, the verdict will put an official end to a one-year stint at Current that was supposed to last at least five.

But as one door closes, another has been quietly approached. At various times over the last year, Olbermann and his representatives have expressed interest in his return to the employer that made him famous: ESPN. 

Olbermann’s expressions of interest included dinner at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant with John Skipper, ESPN’s president. 

“Keith Olbermann, both personally and through a couple people I know, reached out to say, ‘Gee, I would love to have dinner,’ ” Skipper said. “I agreed to dinner with Keith because I assumed he’d be provocative and witty and fun to have dinner with, and he was indeed lots of fun. We talked sports and politics, and we had a nice chat. He is very interesting.

Mash taters.

This has to have Fox Sports, CBSSports and NBC just grinning ear to ear. Keith Olbermann has singlehandedly destroyed the ratings of pretty much every network he's been with since leaving ESPN.

Fox owner Rupert Murdoch--a man not shy from hiring liberals like Alan Colmes, Geraldo Rivera and Juan Williams--said after his dismissal from his organization: "I fired him because he's crazy."

During his relatively sane years at ESPN, he and Dan Patrick actually had a great repartee on The Big Show, and really made the network into the prime time sports news organization that it is today.

But he was manhandled by Bill O'Reilly in head-to-head prime time broadcasts and went off the reservation. He went even crazier at the end of his Current TV gig (the network owned in part by former Vice President, Al Gore).

It's hard to see this ending well for ESPN. The over/under on when he explodes in another hissy fit and storms out of Bristol? I give it 12 months, tops.