ESPN president John Skipper resigns, citing substance addiction

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ion/960937001/

"Today I have resigned from my duties as President of ESPN," said Skipper, who joined the sports network in 1997, becoming president in 2012. He added: "I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction. I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem. I have disclosed that decision to the company, and we mutually agreed that it was appropriate that I resign...I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down." George Bodenheimer, who served as ESPN president from 1998 to 2011, will serve as interim president for 90 days while Skipper's successor is chosen.

ALSO:

• ESPN historian James Andrew Miller tweets "This is an addiction story. Nothing else," adding that Skipper's contract was "quietly renewed earlier this year"
  ESPN staffers were blindsided by Skipper's resignation
  Dan Le Batard teared up on air upon learning the news: "Just so you understand, this person has created everything that exists here at ESPN for us"
  "One of the most powerful figures in American sports is leaving the stage"

John Skipper’s ESPN departure comes at a crucial time for the sports network

The former ESPN president had a lot of issues on his plate recently, from cord-cutting to mass layoffs to sports rights fees to the social media use of its stars to dealing with the Disney-21st Century Fox merger. And last week, ESPN was hit with allegations of sexism and sexual harassment in a Boston Globe exposé. “We’ve seen a bunch of big-deal media executives start to head for the exits recently, but this one is different: ESPN is both one of the most important properties in the media world and one whose clout and importance — once unquestioned — is very much up for debate,” says Peter Kafka. “But Skipper, who had re-signed a deal this year that was supposed to keep him at ESPN through 2021, presumably felt he could make a go of it.”

ALSO:

• It’s fair to be skeptical of Skipper’s abrupt resignation since he signed a three-year extension just last month
  Barstool Sports boss pops champagne over Skipper’s exit: “It is a huge victory for us, I love watching my enemies go down”
  Jemele Hill, Keith Olbermann and other current and former ESPN-ers react to Skipper’s resignation

On John Skipper's final weekend as ESPN president, he gave no indication he planned to step down
Skipper was fielding calls and making business decisions as late as Sunday, the day before he abruptly resigned, citing substance addiction, according to John Ourand. Ourand reports that ESPN staffers are still in a “state of shock. None of the sources contacted for this story -- more than a dozen -- suspected that Skipper might step down at any time, much less this week. In fact, none had any idea that he was struggling with an addiction. While many of the sources spoke of having drinks with Skipper on occasion, none of those sources knowingly had seen him under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In fact, Skipper had a reputation at ESPN as an exec who did not like to attend industry parties. He frequently shied away from them.”

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ESPN president John Skipper’s abrupt resignation still looks fishy: Did Disney push him to resign?
ESPN historian James Andrew Miller, who conducted an in-depth interview with Skipper in late November, isn’t buying the “substance addiction” excuse that the former ESPN president cited in his resignation two weeks ago. "What if this was, in a manner of speaking, a Mickey Mouse operation?" Miller writes. Miller points out that Pixar boss John Lasseter was forced to take a six-month “sabbatical” in the wake of his sexual harassment scandal, so why couldn’t Skipper also take a leave from his job? “How can one further defend the idea that Skipper didn’t leave ESPN voluntarily?” Miller writes. “What if it’s as simple as he was no longer wanted?”

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CNN president Jeff Zucker has emerged as a candidate for the ESPN president job
Zucker started his career as a researcher on NBC Sports’ 1988 Olympics coverage before running the Today show and, much later, the entire NBC network, where he helped make Donald Trump a TV star on The Apprentice. Now, after finding success at CNN, Zucker is reportedly lobbying for the top ESPN job to replace John Skipper, who resigned abruptly last month. Zucker “is an intriguing proposition,” according to Deadline, which adds: “He has a higher profile than any of the other potential candidates. He was able to reverse CNN’s linear ratings declines even before the Donald Trump-fueled political coverage ratings bonanza. He also successfully built the cable news network’s digital brand, overseeing a big online expansion.”

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ESPN names new president
James Pitaro, who has been head of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media and a Yahoo Media veteran, succeeds John Skipper, effective immediately. ESPN historian James Andrew Miller says of Pitaro's promotion: "This is as close to an 'in house' selection without being from within current @espn ranks as one could get. Pitaro may not know where all the bathrooms are at Bristol HQ but he knows company's past and current challenges extremely well."

ESPN's new president is raising a lot of eyebrows because he wasn't highly regarded at Disney
James Pitaro now has one of the toughest jobs after a tenure at Disney Variety describes as "turbulent."

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Former ESPN president John Skipper: I resigned after my cocaine dealer attempted to extort me

Skipper's abrupt resignation on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017 -- just five days after he presided over a companywide meeting -- caught everybody off guard. Skipper said in his resignation announcement he was stepping down due to a substance addiction problem. Three months later, Skipper is speaking out about the nature of his problem. He tells ESPN history James Andrew Miller that he had been a long time casual user of cocaine. He never did it at work, nor with any of his colleagues. He was able to keep his illegal drug use secret. That is, until days before his resignation. "In December, someone from whom I bought cocaine attempted to extort me," he said. Skipper says "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 (Disney CEO) Bob (Iger), he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign." Skipper admits he used "very poor judgment," adding: "Look, it was inappropriate for the president of ESPN and an officer of The Walt Disney Co. to be associated in any way with any of this. I do want to make it clear, however, that anything I did in this regard, and anything else resulting from this, was a personal problem. My drug use never had any professional repercussions, but I still have profound regret."

ESPN employees were "blindsided" by former president John Skipper's cocaine extortion revelation
ESPN employees, speaking anonymously, tell Deadspin there was never any indication that Skipper used cocaine in their interactions with him. Skipper's interview with ESPN historian James Andrew Miller raises the question of why he had to resign from his job when John Lasseter, the head of Pixar and the Disney animation studios, was allowed to take a six-month leave of absence after he was hit with multiple allegations of sexual harassment. ALSO: Some ESPN staffers were relieved by Skipper's revelation because they couldn't find any wrongdoing.