Robert Griffin III and Sam Ponder have each been integral elements of ESPN’s soccer protection over the previous couple of years.
For Griffin, he was employed at ESPN in 2021. He was a part of the corporate’s school soccer protection on Saturdays and has served as an analyst for the community’s Monday Evening Soccer program, although it’d lately employed Jason Kelce to switch Griffin.
Sam Ponder has been a part of ESPN’s school soccer protection for greater than a decade now since she joined the community in 2011.
Now, they’re each fired.
The community has reportedly determined to chop Griffin and Ponder, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand experiences. Right here’s the whole lot we all know in regards to the transfer to this point.
Why did ESPN hearth Griffin and Ponder?
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If we’re being frank? Cash. The choice to chop Griffin and Ponder in the end got here right down to prices.
Each Ponder and Griffin had been set to make seven figures on their offers and, with ESPN’s fiscal 12 months coming to a detailed, based on Marchand, the corporate was seeking to tighten its belt a bit.
“Each strikes had been made for monetary causes as ESPN nears the tip of its fiscal 12 months on the finish of September, based on a supply briefed on the matter. Each Ponder and Griffin made greater than seven figures yearly.”
So what occurs subsequent?
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ESPN might want to change them each. With Griffin, we all know who his alternative is. The corporate employed Jason Kelce to switch the previous NFL QB earlier this 12 months on Monday Evening Soccer.
There’s a little bit of an even bigger query mark coming with Ponder’s elimination from NFL Countdown. Marchand threw out some potential replacements for her. “The potential replacements for Ponder embrace ‘NFL Reside’ host Laura Rutledge and “Get Up” host Mike Greenberg,” he writes.
Did their social media exercise have something to do with this?
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It doesn’t appear to be it did. However, if we’re being sincere, that’s in all probability a query we’ll by no means have a very good reply to.
We do know that each of them are fairly lively on social media. Griffin, particularly, has by no means been afraid to query the powers that be at ESPN itself on social platforms.
This tweet from Griffin praising Florida State for his or her season in 2023 appeared to doubtlessly be a shot at Paul Finebaum, who was vital of FSU only a day earlier.
Anybody who’s throwing shade at or attempting to take low cost photographs at Florida State for being not noted of the School Soccer Playoff final 12 months should be out of contact with actuality. FSU wasn’t a crew that was saved out as a result of they misplaced a sport down the stretch. They’re a crew that had been… pic.twitter.com/srmP9mtz0J
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) August 14, 2024
And Ponder seemingly pays no consideration to ESPN’s “persist with sports activities” edict. She routinely espouses her controversial political beliefs on Twitter, which is completely completely different and far more dangerous than Griffin’s critiques.
Nevertheless, it’s inconceivable to know whether or not this impacted ESPN’s choices. We’ll should see how all events transfer on from right here.
However we’ll in all probability be listening to from each of them in some unspecified time in the future within the close to future.
