Linda Cohn will soon be departing ESPN.<\/p>\n
Awful Announcing has learned Cohn\u2019s contract expires at the end of the month, and the two sides could not agree on a suitable role for her moving forward.<\/p>\n
After beginning her tenure at ESPN in Bristol, Cohn relocated to the Los Angeles area, where much of her family lives, and enjoyed the work-life balance of her role as host of the 1 a.m. ET SportCenter. Last year, ESPN opted to move the 1 a.m. SportsCenter<\/a> back to its headquarters in Connecticut. Since then, Cohn\u2019s role shifted to appearing on special projects on the network as plans for her to host SportsCenter in Connecticut fell through. The day of cross-country flights and hotel beds just didn\u2019t seem like an ideal situation going forward after 34 years at ESPN, despite the best efforts of TSA PreCheck and Marriott Reward points.<\/p>\n An announcement is expected as early as tomorrow, with Cohn expected to host several editions of SportsCenter throughout the week to celebrate her time with the company. Cohn has the distinction of hosting the most episodes of SportsCenter in ESPN history, with her 5,000th show being celebrated in 2016.<\/a><\/p>\n For those who enjoyed the lively late-night SportsCenter of yesteryear, it\u2019s been a slow drip of talent departures recently. In just the last few years, Kenny Mayne<\/a>, Neil Everett<\/a>, Stan Verett<\/a>, and now Cohn have all left ESPN. Many have launched personal projects since their exits, with Everett and Verett reuniting to do a twice-a-week Twitch show<\/a>. Cohn teased the possibility of a new chapter in her career earlier this month by plugging her YouTube channel on social media.<\/p>\n New Chapter. Join me. Creating content often. Let\u2019s face it, I have a lot to say.\ud83d\ude09https:\/\/t.co\/V6Em6MPFC0<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) June 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Cohn shared many great stories about her time at\u00a0SportsCenter and ESPN on Rich Eisen\u2019s This Was SportsCenter<\/a> podcast last week, including the infamous Ken Griffey Jr. interview<\/a> that became an early internet sensation and the \u201cmaster batter\u201d catchphrase that ESPN executive Norby Williamson shut down<\/a> after exactly one airing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 34 years at ESPN is a hell of a run, and Cohn should receive a sendoff befitting her many accomplishments at the network during her final week.<\/p>\n ESPN confirmed Cohn\u2019s departure following this story\u2019s publication. In the network\u2019s announcement, ESPN content president Burke Magnus praised Cohn\u2019s contributions to the network.<\/p>\n \u201cLinda Cohn is a legend and a major part of the history of ESPN,\u201d Magnus said. \u201cShe has brought enthusiasm, personality and her love of sports to our audience for more than 30 years and her contributions to ESPN both in front of and behind the camera would make a very long list. We wish her all the best in her retirement and sincerely thank her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linda Cohn will soon be departing ESPN. Awful Announcing has learned Cohn\u2019s contract expires at the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[352,172039,349,99],"class_list":["post-719559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-espn","tag-linda-cohn","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}