NEW YORK — ESPN was expected to lay off 20 people on Friday, including household names like former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, boxing expert Max Kellerman, NFL sideline reporter Suzy Kolber and NBA star Jalen Rose — on his 50th birthday.
Kolber confirmed she’s one of the on-air personalities The Hollywood Reporter said was on the chopping block. “Today I join the many hard-working colleagues who have been laid off,” she tweeted Friday. “Heartbreaking — but 27 years at ESPN was a good run.”
Kolber expressed gratitude for the decades she spent with the cable sports channel and said she was “especially proud” to have accomplished that as a woman largely covering men’s sports.
Former Jets receiver Keyshawn Johnson was also reportedly handed his pink slip Friday.
“Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries, and that process has begun,” ESPN said in a statement. “This exercise will include a small group of job cuts in the short-term and an ongoing focus on managing costs when we negotiate individual contract renewals in the months ahead.”
The company called its cuts “an extremely challenging process” that was “based more on overall efficiency than merit.”
Kolber appeared to be first to publicly address ESPN’s cuts on social media. Colleagues and supporters including ESPN’s senior NFL analyst Adam Schefter expressed support for the 59-year-old pro.
“Suzy Kolber is a pioneer and a legend,” Shefter tweeted. “She, like others laid off today, always will be remembered and missed.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in March the entertainment company, which owns ESPN, would begin laying off workers in multiple stages to cut costs. ESPN soon after informed employees the company would be impacted by those changes, according to the Associated Press. It was reported that a round of dismissals impacting on-air talent would take place over the summer in the form of buyouts, cuts and contracts not being renewed.
