“Bullied Me”: Linda Cohn Exposes Former ESPN President’s Ruthless Behavior Before Suspension Over Controversial Comment

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Suryakant Das Wed, November 4, 2026 at 7:30 AM UTC

September 5, 2026, Austin, Texas, USA: A special drone show presenting at the ESPN College Gameday set early morning before the show starts. Austin USA – ZUMAl187 20260905_zsp_l187_051 Copyright: xJamesxLeyvax ©IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

Linda Cohn was among the most familiar faces at ESPN after decades on air. Then, in 2017, a suspension cut short her SportsCenter work briefly, which had included more than 5,500 episodes since 1992. Few expected it, and the industry took notice. She continued anchoring for ESPN until her retirement in June 2026. Now, nearly nine years after that suspension, Cohn is speaking out about what she says went on at the top of the network.

Speaking on The Sage Steele Show on Wednesday, the veteran broadcaster revisited her troubled relationship with the network’s top management. She alleged that her salary was slashed by 80% and that former ESPN president John Skipper bullied her during her time at the Worldwide Leader.

“[John] Skipper was an absolute nightmare for me,” Cohn shared. “I had a thing about why he suspended me [in 2017]. He bullied me. He never gave me opportunities. And it’s karma, baby. I mean, we saw what happened to him. Listen, I don’t wish anything bad on anybody, even if they treated me the way I should not have been treated.”

Skipper served as ESPN’s president from January 2012 to December 2017, a period that coincided with Cohn’s prominence as one of SportsCenter’s leading anchors. Tensions, as much as officially documented, between the two intensified in April 2017, when Cohn appeared on WABC’sBernie and Sid Show and made some controversial comments about ESPN.

Linda Cohn's candid account reveals the untold power dynamics behind one of sports media's biggest controversies. Subscribe for the full story and ongoing coverage of how this moment is reshaping ESPN.

Rather than going through HR, Skipper phoned Cohn directly. She describes a heated, scolding conversation that left her upset and feeling bullied. The network then suspended her from SportsCenter for a short period, but ESPN’s PR team framed it as a simple request for her to take time off.

“I was shocked. I was devastated,” Cohn shared earlier on Steele’s show. “He [Skipper] gets on the phone, and he’s yelling at me… He was yelling at me, bullying me… ‘Don’t come in.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I won’t come in.’ But I was really upset. I was close to tears.”

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Following the suspension, Skipper’s own career took an unexpected turn. In December 2017, he abruptly stepped down from ESPN, bringing an end to his 27-year association with The Walt Disney Company. Announcing his resignation, Skipper cited his need to seek treatment for substance addiction.

Meanwhile, Cohn claimed that ESPN had sidelined her from NHL coverage, pushing her away from the role she wanted and confining her to the SportsCenter desk.

“The last year I was technically at ESPN, they cut my salary by 80 percent when they closed the LA studio,” Cohn said, referring to ESPN’s relocation of “SportsCenter” from Los Angeles to Bristol, CT, in May 2025.

“I felt bad for my colleagues… They told them six weeks before they decided to close that studio for “SportsCenter,'” Cohn said. “… At that point my deal was up, and I was like, I’m not gonna let them rush me into a decision, and I didn’t want to end my tenure that way.”

It was undoubtedly a messy fallout between Cohn, Skipper, and ESPN. But as for who was right and who was wrong, that’s a matter of perspective.

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