Veteran ESPN exec exits in reshuffle

A noticeable aspect of the ESPN executive reorganization announced this week was who wasn’t mentioned.

The company had lots to say about who was getting new roles, particularly the promotion of Mike McQuade to executive vice president of sports production. But while it was clear some people were exiting, exactly who that was was not clarified.

John Ourand of Puck broke one notable name Thursday, though: ESPN head of content operations (which, like many ESPN titles, does not actually mean what it sounds like) Stephanie Druley.

Here’s more on Druley from that newsletter :

One of the half-dozen executives who was defenestrated as a result of this week’s ESPN reorg is head of content operations Stephanie Druley, the highest-ranking female production executive in the company’s history. Druley spent 34 years with ESPN and has one of the gaudiest résumés in the company, having overseen production for ESPN’s top properties, such as Monday Night Football, the NBA, college football, and MLS. She oversaw the launch of three networks (SEC Network, ACC Network, and Longhorn Network), and determined the look for all on-air content at those channels.

ESPNers also remember Druley for what she did outside of production, including her work developing SportsCenter’s “My Wish” collaboration with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Druley is also known for being a trailblazer and mentor to women at ESPN. One former ESPNer texted me: “She is a true leader. She put women in places they needed to be, because they were good and deserving, and because the men never had the courage or inclination.”

In terms of what Druley actually led at ESPN, their June 2023 reorganization that gave her the “head of content operations” title had her take over many of the responsibilities of Tina Thornton, who was promoted to executive vice president of creative studio and marketing. Per her ESPN Press Room bio , she currently led Production Operations, Production Management, Management Operations, and ESPN Directing. That reorganization saw her reporting directly to current actual ESPN content head Burke Magnus (titled as “ president of content “), who took that role in March 2023 . Druley had previously reported directly to ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro.

Druley’s last title before that came from being promoted to executive vice president (event and studio production) in 2018. That saw her named to “run a combined studio and event production group alongside Exec VP/Event & Studio Production and Exec Editor ” (now recently-exited himself) Norby Williamson, as per Ourand at the time . But there were some changes for her even within that role, specifically in August 2021 when Dave Roberts added the responsibility of leading ESPN’s NBA coverage (shortly after much of the Rachel Nichols-Maria Taylor fallout ). At that point, Druley was left in charge of overseeing college football, the NFL, and some other properties.

A notable Druley moment with the NFL in particular was around the infamous 2018 decision to use Booger McFarland as a “field analyst” from the “ BoogerMobile .” Druley talked up that move heavily when the new announcing team of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, and McFarland was announced that May, but it didn’t particularly work out: there were criticisms from fans who had their views blocked, from viewers who didn’t like the often-awkward exchanges between McFarland from the field and the in-booth pair of Tessitore and Witten and more, and the network eventually went away from the idea for that season’s playoffs and then permanently .

The BoogerMobile was certainly far from the only problem with that MNF team. A lot of the criticism there was about Witten, and it’s the combination of Witten and the BoogerMobile that earned a mention in a top broadcasting flops list here this February. Both of those moves were far from solely on Druley; decisions like that touch a lot of people. Another one is vice-president of production Lee Fitting (who oversaw Monday Night Football that year, albeit under Druley; he’s now at WWE after being let go by ESPN last August, with it later being revealed that the move came around an even stranger saga ) was another very public advocate for Witten.

There are countless other people both below and above Druley who were involved in the BoogerMobile saga. That was just one moment in her 34 years at ESPN. There’s some merit to trying wild broadcast innovations: some work in the long run, some don’t, but there’s an argument for trying things rather than just keeping broadcasts static. But the BoogerMobile was one very high-profile thing Druley was closely linked to that did not pan out, so it deserves some discussion here.

It should also be noted that while the Tessitore/Witten/McFarland MNF booth (and the Tessitore/McFarland one in 2019 following Witten’s exit, and the Steve Levy/Brian Griese/Louis Riddick one in 2020 and 2021) didn’t receive great reception from many, Druley oversaw the follow-up shift to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in 2022. That booth has received a lot of praise and has put ESPN up near the top of our regular NFL announcer rankings. They topped those this year and were third in 2022 , a far cry from Levy/Griese/Riddick (eighth in 2020 ; we didn’t do these rankings in 2021), Tessitore/McFarland (14th and last in 2019 ), and Tessitore/Witten/McFarland (15th and last in 2018 ). There have been some internal challenges around Aikman in particular, as AA reported in March 2023 , but that broadcast booth has generally been very well-received, and Druley should get at least some of the credit for that.

Overall, as Ourand’s piece notes, Druley touched on a lot of important areas for ESPN and received a lot of praise from colleagues. Those college network launches were all impressive, and they all came around external criticism wondering if they’d gain any traction. (The ACC Network launch, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary , was perhaps especially notable considering the difficulties of launching and distributing a college network in the increased cord-cutting environment of the late 2010s, which had many wondering if ESPN would actually bother to launch that network at all.)

Druley oversaw a lot of key properties. She won praise for her handling of many of them, to say nothing of Ourand’s comments on her work trailblazing and mentoring female employees at ESPN and developing the “My Wish” SportsCenter /Make-A-Wish Foundation collaboration. We’ll see what she does next. But she certainly has a lot of impressive experience she could bring to another company in the sports space.

[ Puck ]

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